Who gets the rose?... Looks like a hedge fund. Barnes & Noble surged 30% on word it's "near a deal" to be bought by Elliott Management. That's the financial firm that recently acquired the UK's version of B&N (Waterstones).
Your local bookstore is into poetic justice... B&N closed 90 stores in just the last 7 years as Amazon kept being Amazon. But while Oprah's Book Club was busy shifting online, local bookstores (once B&N victims) have made a comeback. Now they're disrupting their original big box disruptor:
- Sales at indie bookstores rose 5% in 2018, while Barnes & Noble's have fallen for 5 straight years.
- Your local shop's curated offerings are beating B&N as fewer Americans head to malls for their 50 Shades sequel.
The “Millennial Turnaround Formula” didn't work... Barnes & Noble tried it. Last year, the chain whipped up a "concept store" in a desperate attempt to become "experiential." It added a really big café with instagrammable food, sandwich-priced lattés, wine, and (of course) craft beer. It also tried tech, investing further in its Nook reader. But not every turnaround plan can work. We'll see what Elliott has in store now.