Tag Archives: Barnes Noble

News, Politics, Government

Keep Your Customers Shopping… With Chocolate!

Leave a comment

By Roger Dooley, Contributor

What does a bookstore smell like? If you frequent used or antiquarian book sellers, you probably think of musty paper, perhaps with an occasional mildew note. In big box bookstores like Barnes & Noble, the predominant aroma is often a pleasant espresso smell from the coffee bar. But, all of these retailers need to rethink their scent environment – a new study to appear in the Journal of Environmental Psychology shows that infusing a chocolate scent into a bookstore kept shoppers browsing longer and inspecting more merchandise. …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest

Articles of Interest

Amazon Might Doom Itself With Own Success

Leave a comment

By John Johnson

Amazon seems unstoppable right about now, thanks in part to court decisions like this one . On top of that, Barnes & Noble is reeling , as are brick-and-mortar bookstores in general. But Amazon better hold the celebration, because if it puts traditional bookstores out of business, it’s only going to hurt… …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Liberty Media Corporation to Hold Annual Meeting of Stockholders

Leave a comment

By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Liberty Media Corporation to Hold Annual Meeting of Stockholders

ENGLEWOOD, Colo.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Liberty Media Corporation (Nasdaq: LMCA, LMCB) will be holding its Annual Meeting of Stockholders on Tuesday, June 4, 2013, at 10:45 a.m., Mountain Time, at the corporate offices of Starz, 8900 Liberty Circle, Englewood, Colorado 80112. The record date for the meeting is 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on April 10, 2013. At the meeting, Liberty Media Corporation may make observations regarding the company’s financial performance and outlook.

The presentation will be broadcast live via the Internet. All interested persons should visit the Liberty Media Corporation website at http://www.libertymedia.com/events to register for the webcast. An archive of the webcast will also be available on this website for 30 days.

About Liberty Media

Liberty Media owns interests in a broad range of media, communications and entertainment businesses, including its subsidiaries SiriusXM, Atlanta National League Baseball Club, Inc. and TruePosition, Inc., its interests in Live Nation Entertainment and Barnes & Noble, and minority equity investments in Time Warner Inc. and Viacom.

Liberty Media
Courtnee Ulrich, 720-875-5420

KEYWORDS:   United States  North America  Colorado

INDUSTRY KEYWORDS:

The article Liberty Media Corporation to Hold Annual Meeting of Stockholders originally appeared on Fool.com.

Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright © 1995 – 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

(function(c,a){window.mixpanel=a;var b,d,h,e;b=c.createElement(“script”);
b.type=”text/javascript”;b.async=!0;b.src=(“https:”===c.location.protocol?”https:”:”http:”)+
‘//cdn.mxpnl.com/libs/mixpanel-2.2.min.js’;d=c.getElementsByTagName(“script”)[0];
d.parentNode.insertBefore(b,d);a._i=[];a.init=function(b,c,f){function d(a,b){
var c=b.split(“.”);2==c.length&&(a=a[c[0]],b=c[1]);a[b]=function(){a.push([b].concat(
Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments,0)))}}var g=a;”undefined”!==typeof f?g=a[f]=[]:
f=”mixpanel”;g.people=g.people||[];h=[‘disable’,’track’,’track_pageview’,’track_links’,
‘track_forms’,’register’,’register_once’,’unregister’,’identify’,’alias’,’name_tag’,
‘set_config’,’people.set’,’people.increment’];for(e=0;e<h.length;e++)d(g,h[e]);
a._i.push([b,c,f])};a.__SV=1.2;})(document,window.mixpanel||[]);
mixpanel.init("9659875b92ba8fa639ba476aedbb73b9");

function addEvent(obj, evType, fn, useCapture){
if (obj.addEventListener){
obj.addEventListener(evType, fn, useCapture);
return true;
…read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

3 Companies Returning to Their Roots

Leave a comment

By Andrew Marder, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Sometimes the best things in life are those that we know. Especially in turbulent times, people have a tendency to cling to the things they know best. It shouldn’t be a surprise that companies do the exact same thing, returning to what worked in the past when new ideas flounder. Over the past month, Barnes & Noble , Best Buy , and now J.C. Penney have all turned to leaders from their pasts.

Depending on the company, the “new” blood is either someone who was instrumental in changing the face of things, founded the place, or both. Should investors welcome these prodigal sons back with open arms, or does it mean only heartache in the future?

Barnes & Noble’s CEO moves to buyout
In February, Barnes & Noble announced that founder and chairman Leo Riggio had expressed interest in purchasing the company — but just the retail portion. In effect, the sale would split the retail and Nook divisions, which is a move that has been in the works for more than a year now. Over the course of that year, the Nook has floundered, with holiday sales falling 13% last year.

But the company also got a buy-in from Microsoft and Pearson for the Nook last year, and under the last announced purchase from Pearson, the Nook business is valued at more than Barnes & Noble in its entirety. Investors have been pushing for the division of the two businesses, which seem to be dragging each other down, and since the announcement of Riggio’s intentions, the company’s stock has risen 24%.

Riggio would likely pare down the overall store count, focusing on the businesses that are generating the most revenue. There is also the chance that Barnes & Noble could attempt a smaller-format store, much like Best Buy has done with its Best Buy Mobile locations. Overall, Riggio’s return to ownership seems like a good thing for both customers and investors.

Best Buy in the trenches
Best Buy has also been on the ropes for failing to adapt to a changing business model. Earlier this year, founder Richard Schulze announced that he was raising capital to buy out the company and take it private. After the deadline for his bid came and went, Best Buy announced late last month that Schulze would be rejoining the board, and that he was bringing former CEO Brad Anderson with him.

The move ended up being one of the best outcomes the company could have managed. The founder is back in the mix — with the blessing of investors and board members — and the CEO who helped make Best Buy the titan that it was in the mid-2000s is also around to help out. But Best Buy employees and customers don’t have the headache of confusion that comes from new leaders and the big changes they bring. Instead it’s just a return to stability.

As Best Buy focuses on computers and mobile devices — which had …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Why Barnes &amp; Noble Is Poised to Pull Back

Leave a comment

By Brian D. Pacampara, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Based on the aggregated intelligence of 180,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool’s free investing community, book retailer Barnes & Noble has received the dreaded one-star ranking.

With that in mind, let’s take a closer look at Barnes & Noble and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.

Barnes & Noble facts

   

Headquarters (founded)

New York, N.Y. (1986)

Market Cap

$971.9 million

Industry

Specialty stores

Trailing-12-Month Revenue

$6.9 billion

Management

Founder/Chairman Leonard Riggio

President/CEO William Lynch

Return on Equity (average, past 3 years)

(7.2%)

Cash/Debt

$213.6 million/$155.8 million

Competitors

Amazon.com 

Apple

Books-A-Million

Sources: S&P Capital IQ and Motley Fool CAPS.

On CAPS, 55% of the 675 members who have rated Barnes & Noble believe the stock will underperform the S&P 500 going forward.

Just adamlevy, succinctly summed up the Barnes & Noble bear case for our community: “Struggling retail segments in both brick-and-mortar and the Nook division. The only saving grace for this company is licensing content with its publishing partners, which isn’t really a core part of its business model (yet).”

To learn about two retailers with especially good prospects, take a look at The Motley Fool’s special free report: “The Death of Wal-Mart: The Real Cash Kings Changing the Face of Retail.” In it, you’ll see how these two cash kings are able to consistently outperform and how they’re planning to ride the waves of retail’s changing tide. You can access it by clicking here.

Want to see how well (or not so well) the stocks in this series are performing? Follow the TrackPoisedTo CAPS account.

The article Why Barnes & Noble Is Poised to Pull Back originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Brian Pacampara has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends and owns shares of Amazon.com and Apple. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright © 1995 – 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

(function(c,a){window.mixpanel=a;var b,d,h,e;b=c.createElement(“script”);
b.type=”text/javascript”;b.async=!0;b.src=(“https:”===c.location.protocol?”https:”:”http:”)+
‘//cdn.mxpnl.com/libs/mixpanel-2.2.min.js’;d=c.getElementsByTagName(“script”)[0];
d.parentNode.insertBefore(b,d);a._i=[];a.init=function(b,c,f){function d(a,b){
var c=b.split(“.”);2==c.length&&(a=a[c[0]],b=c[1]);a[b]=function(){a.push([b].concat(
Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments,0)))}}var g=a;”undefined”!==typeof f?g=a[f]=[]:
f=”mixpanel”;g.people=g.people||[];h=[‘disable’,’track’,’track_pageview’,’track_links’,
‘track_forms’,’register’,’register_once’,’unregister’,’identify’,’alias’,’name_tag’,
‘set_config’,’people.set’,’people.increment’];for(e=0;e<h.length;e++)d(g,h[e]);
a._i.push([b,c,f])};a.__SV=1.2;})(document,window.mixpanel||[]);
mixpanel.init("9659875b92ba8fa639ba476aedbb73b9");

function addEvent(obj, evType, fn, useCapture){
if (obj.addEventListener){
…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Barnes &amp; Noble Stores Offer Educators Special Discounts During Educator Appreciation Days – April 13

Leave a comment

By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Barnes & Noble Stores Offer Educators Special Discounts During Educator Appreciation Days – April 13-21, Including $20 Off NOOK ® HD and NOOK ® HD+

Store Will Also Host Common Core Forums, Homeschool Presentations, NOOK in the Classroom & Celebrations for “My Favorite Teacher Contest” Winners

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the leading retailer of content, digital media and educational products, announced that its nearly 700 stores will host informative educator events and additional discounts on classroom and personal purchases, including NOOK, during Educator Appreciation Days, April 13-21, 2013.

Educators who shop at Barnes & Noble during Educator Appreciation Days will receive:

  • $20 off NOOK HD and NOOK HD+ (limit 2 per educator);
  • A 25% discount on personal and classroom purchases;
  • A 10% discount on DVDs and music; and
  • A chance to win either a NOOK® or a $500 Barnes & Noble gift card (one winner per region).

As part of Educator Appreciation Days, Barnes & Noble stores will host special workshops for pre-K through grade 12 teachers, librarians, curriculum specialists and administrators focusing on the Common Core State Standards, NOOK in the Classroom, homeschooling, grant writing and more.

“Our stores craft their own unique educator events based on topics important to educators in their markets,” says Sarah DiFrancesco, Director of Business Development for Barnes & Noble. “We’re hearing a lot from educators about The Common Core State Standards, so we’re encouraging stores to host open houses on this topic. That way we can hear from educators about how they’re planning to implement the standards and what books and products they need from us to be successful.”

Homeschooling will be another key focus during Educator Appreciation Days. “Many homeschool teachers aren’t aware that they’re eligible for the Barnes & Noble Educator Discount Card,” DiFrancesco continues. “They’re also eligible for bulk pricing just like a school or district, so long as they purchase jointly through an association. And we know they’re incorporating digital into their plans, so we want to make sure they get the special $20 discount on NOOK® HD and NOOK® HD+ that we’re offering during our Educator Appreciation …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

March Madness at NOOK®: Announcing Special Limited Time NOOK Book™ Deals to Coincide with the Tourna

Leave a comment

By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

Filed under:

March Madness at NOOK ® : Announcing Special Limited Time NOOK Book ™ Deals to Coincide with the Tournament of Books

NOOK-Sponsored Tournament Features Bracket-Style Competition with Popular Books Going Head-to-Head Until One Is Crowned the Winner

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)– NOOK Media LLC, a subsidiary of Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the leading retailer of content, digital media and educational products, is offering a special limited time deal on select NOOK Books to coincide with the annual Tournament of Books. The competition, in which two works of fiction from 2012 go head to head each day, is run by The Morning News (www.themorningnews.org/tob), an online magazine of essays, art and humor. It features judges and publishing industry experts picking a winner each day until one book is crowned the champion. The Tournament of Books NOOK offer features discounted bestselling titles from competing authors and judges, including The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller, The Financial Lives of the Poets by Jess Walter, Ticknor by Sheila Heti and more, available in the NOOK Store™starting at just $2.99. The offer runs until Friday, March 29. For more information, customers can visit Bn.com/tournamentofbooks.

“We’re excited to sponsor this year’s Tournament of Books because it’s an innovative way to help fans to interact and get excited about some of the best works of fiction from the previous year,” said Jim Hilt, Vice President of eBooks at NOOK Media LLC. “Through our NOOK Book offer, we are generating more excitement about the tournament by offering customers many of the featured authors’ and judges’ books at even lower prices on NOOK devices and through NOOK.com.”

“From the beginning, NOOK by Barnes & Noble was a natural fit for us as a presenting sponsor of the Tournament of Books,” said Rosecrans Baldwin, co-founder of the Tournament of Books. “At the most basic level, the event celebrates discovering excellent new works of fiction. Barnes & Noble’s passion for new literature, whether it’s in the Barnes & Noble Review or the Discover Great New Writers program, seemed to just match with why we started the Tournament in the first place.”

The tournament, now in its ninth year, starts out with 16 great works of fiction. Each day, two books go head to head with the winner decided by different judges within the publishing industry. Along the way, each judge reveals his or her biases and interests, any connections they have to the participating authors, and, most importantly, how they decided between the two …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

In-App Purchases on Barnes &amp; Noble's Nook: Will It Matter?

Leave a comment

By Steve Symington, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

On Monday, Barnes & Noble subsidiary Nook Media announced that it will soon bring in-app purchasing functionality to the company’s Nook devices, thanks to a partnership with privately held mobile-payment provider Fortumo.

Wait, they didn’t already have that?
To be sure, for many folks who’ve never used a Nook tablet, in-app purchases seemed like a foregone conclusion for a serious device hoping to compete in today’s crowded market.

After all, both Amazon.com‘s Kindle Fire and Apple‘s iPhones and iPads have long used in-app purchasing as a way to not only draw in new developers through the promise of additional revenue streams, but also to supplement their own coffers through profit sharing arrangements. As a reminder, Apple and Amazon get to keep 30% of every in-app sale from the devices running their respective platforms. 

With this in mind, it’s no wonder Barnes & Noble has struggled to turn a profit from its Nook division, even after the huge confidence booster in the form of a $300 million infusion from Microsoft , which helped form Nook Media in 2011.

In fact, the struggling bookseller fell more than 6% in a single day last month, when it reversed its previous assertion that Nook revenue would be at least $3 billion this year. As a result, Barnes & Noble also stated that its 2013 EBITDA loss from the Nook business will probably exceed even the $262 million loss it suffered last year.

How much longer can they keep this up?
Then again, core sales in Barnes & Noble’s retail business took some of the sting away by actually exceeding their expectations in the most recent quarter, contributing to a 7% year-over-year growth in EBITDA. What’s more, Nook media is still managing to finance itself and had around $240 million in cash remaining as of last month. In addition, Microsoft’s stake in the new company also included $180 million in revenue-sharing payments over three years as well as $125 million to help finance the Nook’s international expansion.

Can this move effectively supplement Barnes & Noble’s efforts to right the Nook’s wrongs and — most importantly — slow Nook Media‘s cash burn long enough to help the segment actually turn a profit?

Foolish final thoughts
Color me skeptical, but I’m not particularly optimistic for Nook’s future prospects, especially given the fierce competition it faces from the superior product ecosystems at Amazon and Apple.

When the rubber hits the road, then, I’m still convinced it’s only a matter of time until Barnes & Noble runs out of gas.

More expert advice from The Motley Fool
Everyone knows Amazon is the big bad wolf in the retail world right now, but at its sky-high valuation, most investors are worried it’s the company’s share price that will get knocked down instead of its competitors’. The Motley Fool’s new premium report will tell you what’s driving the company’s growth, and fill you in on reasons to buy and reasons to sell …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Barnes &amp; Noble Bringing In-App Purchases to Nook

Leave a comment

By Chris Neiger, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Nook Media, a subsidiary of Barnes & Noble , is partnering with mobile payment provider Fortumo to bring in-app purchases to its Nook tablet line.

Barnes & Noble said today that it will roll out the feature for customers in the coming weeks and months across its line of Nook tablets.

Furtumo’s in-app payments will allow developers to create one-click payment systems within the apps. Nook users will be able to enter their credit card information once and buy extra levels for games, coins, or other premium content with a one-click purchase feature.

Furtumo will give Nook app developers access to resources on how to integrate purchases into their apps, as well as a dashboard management tool, real-time data for app revenues, and customer purchase analytics, the company said. For Barnes & Noble, in-app purchases are another step in competing with Android and iPad tablets in the ever-important mobile app space.

link

The article Barnes & Noble Bringing In-App Purchases to Nook originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Chris Neiger has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright © 1995 – 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

(function(c,a){window.mixpanel=a;var b,d,h,e;b=c.createElement(“script”);
b.type=”text/javascript”;b.async=!0;b.src=(“https:”===c.location.protocol?”https:”:”http:”)+
‘//cdn.mxpnl.com/libs/mixpanel-2.2.min.js’;d=c.getElementsByTagName(“script”)[0];
d.parentNode.insertBefore(b,d);a._i=[];a.init=function(b,c,f){function d(a,b){
var c=b.split(“.”);2==c.length&&(a=a[c[0]],b=c[1]);a[b]=function(){a.push([b].concat(
Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments,0)))}}var g=a;”undefined”!==typeof f?g=a[f]=[]:
f=”mixpanel”;g.people=g.people||[];h=[‘disable’,’track’,’track_pageview’,’track_links’,
‘track_forms’,’register’,’register_once’,’unregister’,’identify’,’alias’,’name_tag’,
‘set_config’,’people.set’,’people.increment’];for(e=0;e<h.length;e++)d(g,h[e]);
a._i.push([b,c,f])};a.__SV=1.2;})(document,window.mixpanel||[]);
mixpanel.init("9659875b92ba8fa639ba476aedbb73b9");

function addEvent(obj, evType, fn, useCapture){
if (obj.addEventListener){
obj.addEventListener(evType, fn, useCapture);
return true;
} else if (obj.attachEvent){
var r = obj.attachEvent("on"+evType, fn);
return r;
}
}

addEvent(window, "load", function(){new FoolVisualSciences();})
addEvent(window, "load", function(){new PickAd();})

var themeName = 'dailyfinance.com';
var _gaq = _gaq || [];
_gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-24928199-1']);
_gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);

(function () {

var ga = document.createElement('script');
ga.type = 'text/javascript';
ga.async = true;
ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js';

var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];
s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);
})();

Read | Permalink …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Why Barnes &amp; Noble Will Never Be Great Again

Leave a comment

By Jeremy Phillips and Austin Smith, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Barnes & Noble garnered a lot of investor enthusiasm over the past year as the company looked as if it may rebound on the back of its Nook division, coupled with a timely investment from Microsoft. But fast-forward a year later, and this knife has continued to fall. Neither Microsoft nor Barnes & Noble’s tablet hopes have paid off, leaving B&N investors out in the cold. 

The ultimate lesson here is that turnarounds are always more difficult than they appear on the surface, and if you’re investing in one today, make sure you’re conscious of all the pitfalls they can entail. The Fool’s Jeremy Phillips and Austin Smith have more in the following video.

The Motley Fool advocates buying great companies for the long haul, and our chief investment officer’s No. 1 stock for the next year fits the bill. Find out which stock it is in the brand-new free report: “The Motley Fool’s Top Stock for 2013.” Just click here to access the report and find out the name of this under-the-radar company.

The article Why Barnes & Noble Will Never Be Great Again originally appeared on Fool.com.


Austin Smith and Jeremy Phillips have no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of Microsoft. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools don’t all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright © 1995 – 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

(function(c,a){window.mixpanel=a;var b,d,h,e;b=c.createElement(“script”);
b.type=”text/javascript”;b.async=!0;b.src=(“https:”===c.location.protocol?”https:”:”http:”)+
‘//cdn.mxpnl.com/libs/mixpanel-2.2.min.js’;d=c.getElementsByTagName(“script”)[0];
d.parentNode.insertBefore(b,d);a._i=[];a.init=function(b,c,f){function d(a,b){
var c=b.split(“.”);2==c.length&&(a=a[c[0]],b=c[1]);a[b]=function(){a.push([b].concat(
Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments,0)))}}var g=a;”undefined”!==typeof f?g=a[f]=[]:
f=”mixpanel”;g.people=g.people||[];h=[‘disable’,’track’,’track_pageview’,’track_links’,
‘track_forms’,’register’,’register_once’,’unregister’,’identify’,’alias’,’name_tag’,
‘set_config’,’people.set’,’people.increment’];for(e=0;e<h.length;e++)d(g,h[e]);
a._i.push([b,c,f])};a.__SV=1.2;})(document,window.mixpanel||[]);
mixpanel.init("9659875b92ba8fa639ba476aedbb73b9");

function addEvent(obj, evType, fn, useCapture){
if (obj.addEventListener){
obj.addEventListener(evType, fn, useCapture);
return true;
} else if (obj.attachEvent){
var r = obj.attachEvent("on"+evType, fn);
return r;
}
}

addEvent(window, "load", function(){new FoolVisualSciences();})
addEvent(window, "load", function(){new PickAd();})

var themeName = 'dailyfinance.com';
var _gaq = _gaq || [];
_gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-24928199-1']);
_gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);

(function () {

var ga = document.createElement('script');
ga.type = 'text/javascript';
ga.async = true;
ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Barnes &amp; Noble Announces NOOK® HD+ Special Limited Time Offer: Purchase the Critically Acclaimed NOO

Leave a comment

By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Barnes & Noble Announces NOOK ® HD+ Special Limited Time Offer: Purchase the Critically Acclaimed NOOK HD+ and Get a FREE NOOK Simple Touch ™

Everything That Customers Want in a Full HD Tablet Plus a FREE NOOK Simple Touch E Ink ® Reader, a $79 Value

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)– NOOK Media LLC, a subsidiary of Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the leading retailer of content, digital media and educational products, today announced that customers who purchase a NOOK HD+ between March 24, 2013, and March 31, 2013, will receive a free NOOK Simple Touch E Ink reader, a $79 value. This special limited time offer is available at all the nearly 700 Barnes & Noble retail stores nationwide, hundreds of Barnes & Noble College Bookstores and online at www.nook.com. The offer is also available between March 24, 2013, and March 30, 2013, through other leading retailers offering NOOK® products, including Walmart.com, Target and Best Buy. This is the perfect way to experience all that NOOK has to offer, combining NOOK HD+, the lightest full 9-inch HD tablet ever invented, with a free NOOK Simple Touch, the highly acclaimed and easy-to-use E Ink reader.

“By offering a free NOOK Simple Touch with the purchase of NOOK HD+, customers can fully experience all that the expansive NOOK Store™ of more than 3 million titles has to offer,” said Jamie Iannone, President of Digital Products at NOOK Media LLC. “NOOK HD+, with its must-see full HD 9-inch screen, is perfect for experiencing movies, apps, magazines and more, while NOOK Simple Touch is ideal for reading millions of books with crisp, clear text on a portable and lightweight device that’s comfortable to hold for hours.”

NOOK HD+ delivers extraordinary experiences in the areas that tablet owners use most. The reading experience is unmatched, offering beautifully rendered text, magazines in spectacular HD and lightning fast page turns. The fully laminated display reduces glare and provides excellent viewing angles, perfect for personal or shared viewing. At only 18.2 ounces (515 grams), NOOK HD+ is the lightest full HD tablet ever invented and features great battery life and expandable memory for even more storage. NOOK HD+ is available for $269 (16GB) and $299 (32GB), and is now an even better value with a free NOOK Simple Touch E Ink reader, a $79 value.

NOOK HD+ is packed full with great tablet features, including:

Articles of Interest

‘Lean In’ Book Sales Are Big Win For Sheryl Sandberg

Leave a comment

By The Huffington Post News Editors

NEW YORK (AP) — Sheryl Sandberg has the ear, and the eyes, of the country’s book buyers.

Sandberg’s “Lean In” sold 140,000 copies its first week of publication, has gone back to press seven times for additional printings and now has 400,000 copies in print, publisher Alfred A. Knopf announced Wednesday.

It has been at No. 1 on Amazon.com’s best seller list since coming out March 11 and has also placed high on lists for Barnes & Noble and independent sellers, topping the nonfiction list for IndieBound, a list for independent stores.

Read More…
More on AP

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Huffington Post

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Apple's Tablet Crown Is Looking a Little Dented

Leave a comment

By Chris Neiger, The Motley Fool

Source: IDC.

Apple’s tablet shipment numbers outpace No. 2 Samsung by almost 290%. That’s a pretty hefty lead, considering Apple’s price point, even with the iPad Mini, is aimed toward the higher-end market, and Samsung’s tablets run the gamut of prices.

A look ahead
Apple’s competition shouldn’t be undersold, but the company does still command a lead in global tablet shipments. With the smaller tablet market expected to

Filed under:

We’re just three months into 2013 and it hasn’t been a great year for Apple . The company’s stock is down 39% from an all-time high back in September and IDC just released numbers this week predicting that Android tablets will outpace iPad shipments this year. But how far has Apple’s tablet market share actually fallen and what does it mean for investors?

How far Apple has fallen
When the iPad was first introduced in 2010, the device practically created the tablet market that now seems so commonplace. A mere three years ago, Apple’s new device dominated global tablet shipments. But over the past few years, its grip on the market has begun to lose ground, despite strong sales.

Source: IDC.

Apple’s tablet shipment market share is expected to be overtaken by Android devices later this year The chart below shows Apple and Android’s market share last year, and this year’s estimates.

Source: The New York Times.

Judging purely by Apple’s downward trend in shipment market share, and Android’s upward movement, Apple investors shouldn’t be pleased with these numbers. But is it all that bad?

Still the top-selling dog
Apple investors clearly don’t want to see the company losing the global shipments game, but there’s another set of numbers to consider — and they’re pretty important. When it comes to shipments compared to other manufacturers, Apple still reigns supreme. Take a gander at these tablet shipment numbers for the top five competitors in Q4 2011 and 2012.

Vendor Q4 2011 Shipments
(millions)		 Q4 2012 Shipments
(millions)
1. Apple 15.5 22.9
2. Samsung 2.2 7.9
3. Amazon.com  4.7 6.0
4. Asus 0.6 3.1
5. Barnes & Noble  1.4 1.0
Others 5.5 11.6

Source: IDC.

In Q4 2011 the company shipped over 15 million iPads and then increased that number by more than 48% year over year. To be fair, Samsung’s tablet shipments skyrocketed by 263%, but the company only sold 2 million tablets in Q4 2011, so its rapid percentage growth is in relation to its previously low shipment numbers. When we take these shipment numbers and stack them up against each other, we see how Apple fares against its biggest competitors.

Source: IDC.

Apple’s tablet shipment numbers outpace No. 2 Samsung by almost 290%. That’s a pretty hefty lead, considering Apple’s price point, even with the iPad Mini, is aimed toward the higher-end market, and Samsung’s tablets run the gamut of prices.

A look ahead
Apple’s competition shouldn’t be undersold, but the company does still command a lead in global tablet shipments. With the smaller tablet market expected to take off this year, Apple launched its iPad Mini at the right time and can expect to keep tablet sales strong with the smaller iteration. Investors should keep an eye on Apple’s actual tablet sales over each quarter to track how well it’s doing against Samsung and other competitors. Samsung is a formidable opponent in both tablets and smartphones, and Apple can’t rely on previous sales to maintain its lead.

Apple …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

1 More Reason to Fear Amazon?

Leave a comment

By Demitrios Kalogeropoulos, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Amazon.com already dominates online retailing. 

But the e-tailer may be aiming for an even stronger competitive position on the web. In a bid to grab extra Internet real estate, Amazon has once again got rivals crying foul with allegations of monopoly building. And book authors are joining in with complaints against the retailer, too.

Fool me once
Amazon already irked writers with its recent move to explore launching a secondhand market for used e-books. It appears to be competing with Apple in a race to see who can create a better platform for used digital products. That makes sense, as whichever company solves the tricky rights issues around digital content will be rewarded with a stronger ecosystem supporting their hardware sales.

Apple’s iStuff would be more valuable to users if the ownership rights to downloaded stuff, such as songs and movies, becomes more flexible. And Amazon’s e-reader and tablet lineup would be more useful if customers ever get the freedom to trade in their used e-books after reading them.

Still, even if the digital marketplace that Apple and Amazon imagine would be a nirvana for consumers, authors aren’t impressed. They’re worried they could lose pricing power for their creations.

What’s in a name?
And now writers have another bone to pick with Amazon — this time over web domain names.

Amazon has been bidding on a host of new website domains, which are set to be given out soon by ICANN, the official keeper of web monikers. On the list of controversial titles that Amazon wants are the “.book,” “.read,” and “.author” domains. Whoever controls those domain names would have the power to box out competitors from potentially attractive web domains like, say, www.adventure.book.

The Authors Guild cried foul over the process last week, complaining that Amazon’s attempt to tie up those terms is “anticompetitive.” Barnes & Noble is on the same page. The bookseller urged ICANN to keep those domain names out of Amazon’s hands so that the company couldn’t use them to “stifle competition in the bookselling and publishing industries.”

That seems like a bit of an overreaction to me. Amazon isn’t going to corner any markets with this move, even if it wins ICANN‘s approval. It is just competing in the digital land grab along with many other major companies. Google, for example, is targeting several domain names for itself, including the “.blog” tag. Apple and Microsoft have requests in with ICANN for a number of domains as well. Maybe Amazon is pushing the envelope with more everyday terms, but web domains just don’t convey much market power.

And while it might be nice to own generic terms such as “book” and “author,” Amazon clearly doesn’t need them to build awareness around its products and services. Its “Kindle” brand name didn’t rely on an everyday term as it grew into lead e-reader status. And don’t forget that there used to be a time …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Computers

Barnes & Noble adds Nook apps to its weekly giveaways

Leave a comment

Looking to increase the value of its Android-based Nook tablets, Barnes & Noble on Friday said it will offer a different paid app free of charge every Friday for Nook HD, Nook HD+, Nook Tablet, and Nook Color owners.

The promotion kicks off March 8 with a free download of OfficeSuite Professional 7 from MobiSystems. Office Pro 7 usually costs $15 at the Nook app store as well as on Google Play and the Amazon Appstore for Android.

Nook users are accustomed to getting freebies from the bookseller through Barnes & Noble’s Free Fridays promotion. Until now, however, Barnes & Noble focused on offering free e-books. Now the company will offer one e-book and one app each week.

Other freebies

App giveaways are becoming a trend from major tablet makers. Barnes & Noble’s freebies follow Amazon’s daily paid app promotion, which began in 2011 when the online retailer introduced its Appstore for Android.  Apple’s App Store in 2012 also began offering a free app of the week every Thursday for iPhone and iPad users.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

First to Die: Best Buy, Barnes &amp; Noble, or BlackBerry?

Leave a comment

By Chris Hill, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

The following video is from Wednesday’s MarketFoolery podcast, in which host Chris Hill and analysts Austin Smith and Eric Bleeker discuss the top business and investing stories of the day.

Shares of Best Buy , Barnes & Noble , and BlackBerry have all plummeted over the last few years. In this installment of MarketFoolery, our analysts talk about the future of the embattled companies.

The brick-and-mortar vs. e-commerce battle wages on, with Best Buy caught in the middle. After what might have been its most tumultuous year in history, there are now even more unanswered questions about the future for the big-box electronics retailer. How will new leadership perform? Will old leadership take the company private? Will a smaller store format work out for both the company and its brave investors? Should you be one such brave investor? To help answer all these questions, The Motley Fool has released a new premium research report detailing the opportunities — and the risks — in store for Best Buy. Simply click here now to claim your comprehensive report today.

var FoolAnalyticsData = FoolAnalyticsData || []; FoolAnalyticsData.push({ eventType: “TickerReportPitch”, contentByline: “Chris Hill“, contentId: “cms.21882”, contentTickers: “NYSE:BBY, NYSE:BKS, NASDAQ:BBRY”, contentTitle: “First to Die: Best Buy, Barnes & Noble, or BlackBerry?”, hasVideo: “True”, pitchId: “136”, …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Barnes &amp; Noble's Dangerous Decision

Leave a comment

By Andrew Marder, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Investors were undeterred by the poor quarterly results that Barnes & Noble released last week. Shares in the bookseller are up 5% in early trading, and it seems likely that the rally will hold out through the day. It’s an unlikely jump, as the company reported lackluster sales of both digital and physical inventory. On the conference call, CEO William Lynch laid out the future of the company, saying of the newest Nook devices, “Despite generating very strong reviews and the highest preorder volume we received on any NOOK launch to date, sales of those products didn’t materialize at the rate we expected through holiday.”  

As a result of that slowdown in sales, the company is rethinking the Nook strategy. Just short of coming right out and saying it, the company indicated that the focus would be shifting from hardware to digital content. Competition in the marketplace has made the Nook one of many devices, and the development and marketing costs have been unable to generate the level of sales required to keep that part of the business at its current level. As a result, Barnes & Noble is going to “rightsize” — a word I hate — the Nook business over the next year. In light of all this, and the bid for the retail business, what does the future hold for Barnes & Noble investors?

The tragedy of the commons
Barnes & Noble is a poster child for the victim of its own success. By helping to popularize the Nook and the e-reader concept, it made the market attractive to other companies, which subsequently squeezed Barnes & Noble out. The biggest of these is obviously Amazon , which has a stronger background in technology, and is pushing the envelope on low customer costs. On the earnings call, Barnes & Noble called out Amazon as being the other main player in the e-book market due to its content licensing.

That licensing is where Barnes & Noble sees itself earning the bulk of its revenue over the next few years. The mold that the company has in mind is the deal struck with Microsoft last year. Microsoft is currently pumping $20 million per month into the Nook business, and is being paid back in revenue sharing. That stream of cash, along with the cash generated by the college bookstore business, has so far kept the Nook business afloat. But that system now seems unsustainable. Revenue in the Nook segment declined 26% last quarter, but revenue from content increased 7%.

The tragedy of the everything-else
The most alarming number wasn’t the fall in Nook revenue, though — that was expected after the company’s holiday sales release. Investors also discovered that the physical stores were doing worse than anticipated. Comparable sales in the retail business, excluding Nook sales, were down 2.2%. If the Nook is included, comparable sales were down 7.3%. That changes the calculus on a buyout …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance