“Barnes & Noble Inc. CEO William Lynch resigned on Monday, an acknowledgement that its digital division Nook has failed to compete successfully in the e-reader and tablet markets and possibly presaging a further shake-up in the company,” Alistair Barr and Dhanya Skariachan report for Reuters.
“Chairman and founder Leonard Riggio, the largest shareholder of Barnes & Noble, said the company is reviewing its strategic plan and announced a series of executive changes,” Barr and Skariachan report. “The new appointments suggest Riggio may be stepping up efforts to re-organize the company by separating the Nook business from the chain of hundreds of Barnes & Noble physical stores. But with Microsoft Corp and Pearson Plc in the wings as minority stakeholders in Nook, it’s not clear how this will be all be resolved, analysts said.”
MacDailyNews Take: Whatever Microsoft touches turns to unsold.
Barr and Skariachan report, “Signs that Barnes & Noble had come to a turning point with Nook came in the latest quarter, when it reported dismal results, led by a 34 percent drop in Nook sales. It also said it would stop making Nook tablets, marking the end of a costly attempt to compete with Amazon, Apple, and Google in the tablet wars.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The price of failure.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
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How long did it take for the Nook to flop? It must have been a slow motion free fall.
Surely it should’ve taken less time than this to be considered a flop. I’m surprised it survived so long.
Who got fired after the Newton failed?
The Newton didn’t fail. Steve axed it because he needed to focus resources on Mac OS X. And Apple brought the Newton back better with iPod, iPhone, and iPad.
The Newton did not fail. Steve spun it off, then killed it later, so Apple could focus on the Mac.
Read: The Story Behind Apple’s Newton
Wasn’t it the sugar water salesman?
Sculley, Spindler, and Amelio.
do you EVER know what you’re talking about?
I think that when I ask a question, it means that I want to know something I don’t know. That is what the funny little mark at the end of the sentence means. I think that was taught in grade two.
well now you know, you don’t know shit from Shinola®.
Shinola is what some people shine their shoes with. The other stuff may look like Shinola but you should stop trying to shine your shoes with it. This is what explains the flies that always surround you.
do you wear pigtails too? your “repartee” has the wit of a fourth grade girl.
I am going to guess that you have a lot of experience with fourth grade girls. It seems that you have a low opinion of girls in general.
jeez, you are beyond lame. I think this is the last time I will respond to you regarding anything.
I doubt that you are capable of stopping yourself.
They need to bring in a MS exec and kill this thing the right way.
Ya know, just get a friggin iPad and quit buying inferior crap because its a little cheaper. You know you want that iPad anyways.
Oh yes the Newton did fail.
Sales were dismal. It was estimated that Apple lost between $500 million and $1 billion on it.
A valiant effort, but too little too late for B&N. It will be sad to see them go away, but I don’t see how they survive in the market at this point.
Can’t compete with the sell at a loss Amazon Technique.
Was B&N able to deduct the amount of the losses from the Nook debacle from the guys severance package? If not then it wasn’t a Noble gesture on his part, he just left the Barn.
Amazon: BUYING ‘tablet’ market share with lower-than-cost Kindles.
Of course Microsoft likes this strategy. They like it a lot. Review the history of the Xbox.