“Gleacher & Co. analyst Brian Marshall this afternoon threw cold water on an article by Jonathan Geller at BoyGeniusReport this morning that speculated Apple might have some interest in purchasing bookseller Barnes & Noble,” Tiernan Ray reports for Barron’s.
“Marshall opines that the rumored price tag, $1.5 billion, would not be a good use of that much of Apple’s cash,” Ray reports. “It would have made more sense to purchase the Borders real estate that is now in liquidation, he notes, if Apple just wanted retail square footage.”
Read more in the full article here.
Related article:
RUMOR: Apple interested in buying Barnes & Noble – July 28, 2011
They will either buy them or not.
(And you can make book on that….)
whoa, quite a risky commitment you made there Tower, heh.
I don’t know what Apple will do, but the iBookstore could do with a better choice of books for sure.
It is a waste of resources to acquire Barnes & Noble.
” Print media is dead” !!!!
Print media will never die! Those of us who value print will buy it at any cost.
Methinks Ross doesn’t like books.
“Print media is dead” is a Steve Jobs quote G4Dualie, but prints is dieing. Many print newspapers are dieing. Ebook sales outsell print most of the time in new release.
retail square footage isn’t though…yet.
If this was anything other than analyst hot air, don’t you think Apple would have picked up, say, Border’s instead?
Anyone with at least half a brain: Apple and Barnes & Noble? Probably not.
Apple didn’t buy Tower Records, did they?
As I recall, correctly or not, Borders uses Barnes and Noble as source of books. I think they are a distributor. If so, then other would use Apple to buy print media and a vast network of locations to setup Apple Mini Stores. Maybe even killing a lot of PC Sales and pushing the Mac hardware into distribution of books even in the rural areas of the US. This could be used to push the iPad into E-reader market, sales to business, consumers, and have that good ole Apple coffee in the morning or evening.
Looking forward to Apples house brand coffee!!!
The company operates 717 stores (as of October 30, 2010) in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia in addition to 637 college bookstores, which serve nearly 4 million students and 250,000 faculty members across the country.[7]
Barnes & Noble College Booksellers, Inc., headquartered in Basking Ridge, NJ, is a subsidiary of the company which operates bookstores at more than 600 institutions of higher education. College Bookstores was previously owned by company chairman Leonard Riggio.
Barnes & Noble College Booksellers also operates the self-proclaimed “world’s largest bookstore,” located on Fifth Avenue and 18th Street in New York City. This flagship store carries a large variety of textbooks, medical and legal books, and medical supplies in addition to the various trade titles carried at the company’s main Stores.
Source: Wikipedia. Quick source.
This asshat anal-cyst also said:
“We would much prefer to see AAPL use cash for strategic purposes and balance sheet optimization (e.g., acquisition of content rights, dividend initiation, share repurchases, etc.),”
from http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/07/28/doubts_cast_on_rumor_of_apple_buying_barnesnoble.html
Just another overpaid, underbrained anal-cyst spouting from a random orifice about things he ought to know better about.
Yes.
If his company is not #1 at what it does, he needs to be quite an leave the running of Apple to the experts.
Makes no sense whatsoever.
Next!
I think insiders aren’t seeing books. They’re looking at the logistics and the question is, does B&N do it anything better than Apple?
Imagine for a moment that interest in the Genius Bar trebled. So great in fact, the traffic became a hinderance to retail and Apple decides to expand on the Genius Bar concept?
Could Apple retrofit existing B&N locations to serve as satellite Genius Bars/mini-retail and perhaps, giving the larger shops, theaters, hobbyist corners, and classrooms? These larger shops could also fill an internal need to serve as metro-central locations for in-house ceremony and training.
Think of the people who would populate these locations? Some of the world’s most clever Mac users could turn these places into Mecca. Fill these locations with lot’s of furniture, just like bookstores. People would come to read their iPads, sip coffee, work, or play, or just to be a part of a group.
Just because Steve Jobs says, most people don’t read books, doesn’t mean he doesn’t value the written word. I think those who know Jobs, knows he loves print and enjoys a good book. But, just because B&N is all about books, and Apple wouldn’t be interested in anything B&N has to offer, is premature.
Apple stores are of a unique design and that design is part of the brand, so Apple isn’t going to start converting B&N stores into Apple stores; they would simply blow it in place and start over, but these existing B&N stores could be retrofitted as Genius Bars at a savings of a few billion.
A stand-alone Genius Bar could benefit from B&Ns existing floor plans. Give me a local B&N store and in 90-days I will deliver not only an Apple satellite affiliate, but would give myself, and sixty others jobs. In the evenings, my girlfriend can promote her aerobics classes and I’ll hang out in Starbucks.
A fountain would make for a nice hub for the remaining quadrants to be populated with special interests. I’d go so far as to build a second floor with a circular balcony overlooking the fountain. This floor would be retail and staff offices with a single entry and exit. Through the front door and up the right-hand stair leads to retail, otherwise go straight through to the Den of Iniquity; which is what your average PC user will do and suddenly find themselves in the thick of macmindedness™.
actually i like your creativity…but don’t think apple wants (or needs) to get into running bookstore/coffee shop/hang-outs. redesigning, constructing, staffing 700+ stores? in locations apple didn’t pick carefully but inherited in their purchase? and offering community like atmosphere, free wi-fi and coffee generates a lot of students (from my own usage) who sit and do school work, read books and often don’t buy anything except a drink, maybe some locals who hang out. first borders in hollywood area had comfy chairs, big coffee bar area, little used music section and was student/reader/coffee-drinker loaded m-f. seems to me apple wisely uses their square footage to market, repair and sell their products. even though the soho store seems to stage a lot of celebrity events, that’s a special location with top talent nearby. my closest store is the grove in l.a. and it used to have a theater area for entertainment, demos, but they couldn’t get the usage out of it for what they needed, according to local managers.
btw, i would probably attend your gf’s class in a heartbeat (or two) but not in an apple store…i sweat a lot and for god’s sake you wouldn’t put showers in the store would you?
I don’t know if this makes business sense, but it sure sounds good!. They could host user forums about tips & tricks, more room for One to One sessions, etc.. Make everyone walk through the retail to get to the iLounge though!.
Or, call the large locations the Apple Clubs, like the Playboy Clubs. Hottie Geeks in short skirts serving coffee and Mac’s.
Apple needs to get in with OnLive. Check out this link
http://www.electronista.com/articles/11/07/28/dido.technology.promises.to.get.10x.capacity/
I was ready to dismiss this out of hand but G4Dualie’s post caused me to think aboiut it further.
This might make sense if it would provide stores in the number and locations that would allow Apple to greatly expand retail even more quickly, or if B&N had any ebook or other media rights that Apple didn’t have in order to also add further competition for Amazon.
Throw in free wifi and make it a hub of Apple activity.
What Apple almost built. May be interesting if you blend a Starbucks model, Apple store design, bookstore community traffic, with books, magazines, a healthy dose of electronic connection, and Apple magic product sales.
No longer have to deal with chain stores, produces profit to support itself, makes Microsoft pay dearly to place a store near (700 B&N), and a wide coverage of stores in every average joes community.
Not to mention a spliter in the eye of Steve Ballmer, Bill Gates and every PC maniac that wanders into B&N only to realize the event horizon was passed at the entrance.
Check out this link:
http://m.cultofmac.com/apple-nearly-created-retro-future-apple-cafes-in-1990s/11332