Barnes & Noble to Spin Off Nook Business

Posted on June 26, 2014

Barnes & Noble has announced plans to separate its Nook tablet business. The company announced that its Board of Directors authorized management to go ahead with the Nook spin off. The company aims to complete the separation by the end of the first quarter of its next calendar year.

Michael P. Huseby, Chief Executive Officer of Barnes & Noble, says in a statement, "Our fiscal 2014 results and solid financial position at year-end reflect the positive impact of those actions. We believe we are now in a better position to begin in earnest those steps necessary to accomplish a separation of Nook Media and Barnes & Noble Retail. We have determined that these businesses will have the best chance of optimizing shareholder value if they are capitalized and operated separately. We fully expect that our Retail and Nook Media businesses will continue to have long-term, successful business relationships with each other after separation."

Barnes & Noble recently partnered with Samsung to develop tablets customized with Nook software. The tablets will a version of Samsung's Galaxy Tab 4 device.

The New York Times reports that the spin off would leave Barnes & Noble with 661 stores and the bn.com website. The college bookstore business is part of Nook Media. The Times notes the possibility that Nook Media could potentially be gobbled up by an Amazon.com competitor after it spins away from its parent company.