It looks like there's more drama in the big-box book world. Barnes & Noble is apparently up for sale after losing market value over the last four years.
The move follows years of struggling by smaller competitor Borders Group, which put itself up for sale in 2008. In fact, William Ackman, whose hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management owns a significant stake in Borders, has alluded to the two chains combining.
Some blame Barnes & Nobles lag in digital-books sales for its problems. Amazon.com apparently sells more publications in that format now than it does hardcovers. Meanwhile, Barnes & Noble saw its last quarterly same-store sales drop 3.1%
So what is the best future plan for Barnes & Noble. Should it go private, combine with Borders, or keep plugging away with its digital offerings and try to take a bite out of the competition.
Whatever it chooses, it looks like we could see some pretty significant store closures in this retail sector in the not-to-far-away future.
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