NEW YORK -- The last remaining national bookstore chain is being taken off the shelf and dusted off for sale.
Barnes & Noble's founder, Leonard Riggio, disclosed in a regulatory filing Monday that he wants to acquire the company's stores and website, but not the business that makes the Nook e-reader or the company's college bookstores. No price was disclosed.It's the latest attempt by a company founder to take back control of all or part of a company he started. Best Buy co-founder Richard Schulze is mulling a bid for the electronics retailer, and Michael Dell announced a $24.4 billion deal this month to take the namesake computer company he founded private.The deals are a way for executives to exert more control over companies without the need to run everything by shareholders. In all these cases, the founders have devoted decades to the businesses, and the companies are struggling to survive in a changing retail landscape."When you've got control outside public eye or public market, you can invest and translate your strategy at your own pace," said Peter Wahlstrom, an analyst at Morningstar. "It's him believing he can run it better by himself without the distraction of the digital side. He believes the brand has value that's not being recognized by investors."Barnes & Noble shares rose $1.18, or 8.8 percent, to $14.69.The company, based in New York, has been struggling to find its place as more readers have shifted to electronic books and competition has grown from discount stores and online competitors. The company, which has 689 bookstores in 50 states and 674 college bookstores, has been trying to avoid the fate of its former rival Borders Group, which did not adapt to the growing threat of the Internet and e-books and went out of business in 2011.Riggio, who is chairman of the chain, bought the store and brand name in the 1970s. Under his leadership, Barnes & Noble became one of the pioneers of the "big box" format in which national chains set up large stores that offer a wide selection of merchandise under one roof.Barnes & Noble bookstores have remained profitable in the face of falling sales. It has broadened its offerings in stores and sells more high-margin games, educational toys and other nonbook items to improve results.In its fiscal second quarter, ending Oct. 27, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization in the retail segment -- which includes the stores and the website that Riggio wants to buy -- doubled to $28 million, helped by selling higher-margin products.Monday's filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission said Riggio, who owns nearly 30 percent of the company's shares, will seek to negotiate a price with the board and pay for the deal with cash and debt. Barnes & Noble said the offer will be considered by a committee of three independent directors. But there is no set timetable.Have more to add? News tip? Tell us
