Barnes & Noble, Inc. is the largest book retailer in the United States,[4][5] operating mainly through its Barnes & Noble Booksellers chain of bookstores headquartered in 122 5th Avenue in lower Fifth Avenue in Lower Manhattan, New York City.[6] Barnes & Noble also operated the chain of small B. Dalton Booksellers stores in malls until they announced the liquidation of the chain. The company is known for large, upscale retail outlets, many of which contain a café serving Starbucks Coffee, and for competitive discounting of bestsellers. Most stores also sell magazines, newspapers, DVDs, graphic novels, gifts, games, and music. Video games and related items were sold in the company's GameStop retail outlets until October 2004, when the division was spun off into an independent company. Barnes & Noble is also known for selling the Barnes & Noble Nook, as well as various incarnations of its mascot, a teddy bear named "Barnsie".
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

Barnes & Noble, Inc. (Barnes & Noble), incorporated in 1986, is a bookseller. The Company is a content, commerce and technology company that provides customers access to books, magazines, newspapers and other content across its multi-channel distribution platform. As of May 1, 2010, the Company operated 1,357 bookstores in 50 states, 637 bookstores on college campuses, and one a Web eCommerce sites, which includes the development of digital content products and software. Barnes & Noble operates in two segments: B&N Retail and B&N College. B&N Retail refers to Barnes & Noble excluding B&N College. The Company’s principal business is the sale of trade books (generally hardcover and paperback consumer titles, mass market paperbacks (such as mystery, romance, science fiction and other popular fiction), children’s books, eBooks and other digital content, eReaders and related accessories, bargain books, magazines, gifts, cafe products and services, music and movies direct to customers through its bookstores or on Barnes & Noble.com. Bestsellers (the top ten highest selling hardcover fiction and hardcover non-fiction) typically represent between 3% and 5% of Barnes & Noble store sales. In September 2009, the Company acquired Barnes & Noble College Booksellers, Inc. and its trade name that was earlier licensed to the Company.
Of the Company’s 1,357 bookstores, 720 operate primarily under the Barnes & Noble Booksellers trade name. Barnes & Noble College Booksellers, LLC (B&N College), a wholly owned subsidiary of Barnes & Noble, operates 637 college bookstores serving nearly four million students and faculty members at colleges and universities across the United States. barnesandnoble.com llc (Barnes & Noble.com) encompasses one of the Web’s largest eCommerce sites, Barnes & Noble eBookstore, Barnes & Noble eReader software, and the Company’s devices and other hardware support. Through Sterling Publishing Co., Inc. (Sterling or Sterling Publishing), the Company is a general trade book publisher.
B&N Retail
In July 2009, Barnes & Noble launched eBookstores and digital newsstand, which allows customers to purchase over one million eBooks, electronic newspapers and magazines. Barnes & Noble’s eBookstore is available on a range of digital platforms, including NOOK, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch and select BlackBerry and Motorola smartphones, as well as most laptops or full-sized desktop computers. In October 2009, Barnes & Noble launched NOOK, the Company’s eReader, which is sold at Barnes & Noble retail stores, Barnes & Noble.com, Best Buy and BestBuy.com. Barnes & Noble stores range in size from 3,000 to 60,000 square feet depending upon market size, with an overall average store size of 26,000 square feet. The B&N Retail segment includes 720 bookstores as of May 1, 2010, primarily under the Barnes & Noble Booksellers trade name.
On March 4, 2009, the Company acquired Fictionwise, Inc. (Fictionwise). On September 24, 2009, the Company acquired the assets of Tikatok Inc. (Tikatok). Tikatok is an online platform where parents and their children and others can write, illustrate, and publish stories into hardcover and paperback books. The Company’s subsidiary Sterling Publishing is a publisher of non-fiction trade titles. In addition, there are over 500 titles in the Barnes & Noble Classics and its Library of Essential Reading series. The Company’s B&N Retail segment purchases physical books on a regular basis from over 1,700 publishers and over 50 wholesalers or distributors.
The Company competes with Borders Group, Inc., (Borders) and Books-A-Million, Waldenbooks, Amazon.com, Apple, Wal-Mart and Costco.
B&N College
On September 30, 2009, the Company acquired B&N College, a contract operator of bookstores on college and university campuses across the United States. In addition to the bookstores, B&N College operates a corporate Website, www.bncollege.com. As of May 1, 2010, B&N College operated 637 stores nationwide serving nearly four million students and faculty members. The Company’s customer base, which is mainly comprised of students and faculty, can purchase various items from their campus stores, including textbooks and course-related materials, emblematic apparel and gifts, trade books, eReaders, school and dorm supplies, and convenience and cafe items. B&N College sells new and used textbooks in campus bookstores and online.
B&N College operates 616 traditional college bookstores and 21 academic superstores, which are generally larger in size, offer cafs and provide a sense of community that engages the surrounding campus and local communities in college activities and culture. The traditional bookstores range in size from 500 to 48,000 square feet. The academic superstores range in size from 11,000 to 75,000 square feet. B&N College’s three customer constituencies are students, faculty members and campus administrators. As of May 1, 2010, B&N College operated 616 bookstores in its traditional format. As of May 1, 2010, B&N College operated 21 B&N College academic superstores at select major campuses, such as the University of Pennsylvania, Yale University, the College of William and Mary, Boston University, DePaul University, and Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech).

In 1996 Barnes & Noble bought a 20 percent stake in Chapters Inc., the largest book retailer in Canada, but sold it three years later. For the fiscal year ending in January 1997, revenues soared past the $2 billion mark, reaching $2.45 billion, an increase of more than 23 percent over the previous year. In early 1997 the company entered the burgeoning market for Internet bookselling through a venture with America Online Inc. (AOL), whereby Barnes & Noble became the exclusive bookseller for the more than eight million AOL subscribers. Later that year the company launched its bookselling web site, barnesandnoble. These moves came following the emergence of a new competitive threat, namely Seattle-based Internet bookselling upstart Amazon.com, Inc., which had been founded in 1995 and had sales of $147.8 million by 1997--although it had yet to make a profit. The e-commerce battle between Amazon and barnesandnoble intensified in 1998 when German media behemoth Bertelsmann AG purchased 50 percent of Barnes & Noble's Internet operation for $200 million, a sizable capital fund for the nascent undertaking. For the fiscal year ending in January 1999, barnesandnoble.com saw its sales increase 381 percent, from $14.6 million to $70.2 million; it also developed an in-stock inventory of 750,000 titles ready for immediate delivery, which the company claimed was the largest in the industry. It also claimed to have the world's largest overall selection, with more than eight million new, out-of-print, and rare books available for ordering. In May 1999 Barnes & Noble and Bertelsmann took barnesandnoble.com public, selling 18 percent of the company and raising another $421.6 million for its war chest. The Internet bookseller's joint venture partners retained equal 41 percent shares in barnesandnoble.com. In July 1999 barnesandnoble.com announced the launch of an online "music store," with heavy discounts of as much as 30 percent off retail prices. Here again, Barnes & Noble was following trailblazer Amazon, which began selling music online a year earlier.
In March 1998 the American Booksellers Association joined with 26 independent bookstores in suing Barnes & Noble and Borders. The suit claimed that the large chains had violated antitrust laws by using their buying power to demand from publishers "illegal and secret" discounts. Barnes & Noble said it would vigorously defend this and similar actions that were subsequently brought against it. Antitrust concerns of a different nature scuttled Barnes & Noble's attempt to purchase Ingram Book Group, the largest book wholesaler in the United States, a deal that was announced in November 1998. Barnes & Noble was interested in Ingram for its system of 11 distribution centers spread throughout the country. The acquisition of this system would have cut distribution costs and enabled Barnes & Noble to speed delivery of books to its growing legion of online customers. The acquisition, however, drew strong opposition from independent booksellers as well as from Amazon.com. Federal Trade Commission officials ended up siding with the opponents, and recommended in June 1999 that the agency oppose the deal, having concluded that it would stifle competition in both online and offline book retailing. Barnes & Noble soon withdrew its takeover bid rather than enter into protracted litigation.
At the turn of the millennium, the biggest threat to Barnes & Noble's position as the number one U.S. bookseller was clearly Amazon.com, which in mid-1999 had a market value of $18 billion--more than three times the value of Barnes & Noble and barnesandnoble.com combined. In the Internet-crazed world of the late 1990s, the fact that Barnes & Noble held 15 percent of the total U.S. book market versus Amazon's two percent mattered less than the companies' respective online bookselling shares: 15 percent for Barnes & Noble, 75 percent for Amazon. Part of Barnes & Noble's response to its upstart challenger was to slow its rapid rate of store expansion. In the wake of the failed acquisition of Ingram, it was likely that Barnes & Noble would step up its plans to build new distribution centers from the ground up and potentially give it a competitive edge in its battle with Amazon.
Principal Subsidiaries: Barnes & Noble Booksellers, Inc.; B. Dalton Bookseller, Inc.; Doubleday Book Shops, Inc.; Marboro Books Corp.; CCI Holdings, Inc.; B&N Sub Corp.; B&N.com Holding Corp.; B&N.com Member Corp.


OVERALL
Beta: 1.19
Market Cap (Mil.): $662.12
Shares Outstanding (Mil.): 60.25
Annual Dividend: --
Yield (%): --
FINANCIALS
BKS.N Industry Sector
P/E (TTM): -- 4.98 8.93
EPS (TTM): -173.18 -- --
ROI: -2.52 5.20 0.90
ROE: -4.98 6.27 1.56

Statistics:
Public Company
Incorporated: 1894 as C.M. Barnes Company
Employees: 29,000
Sales: $3.01 billion (1999)
Stock Exchanges: New York
Ticker Symbol: BKS
NAIC: 451211 Book Stores; 45411 Electronic Shopping & Mail-Order Houses

Name Age Since Current Position
Riggio, Leonard 69 2002 Chairman of the Board
Lynch, William 39 2010 Chief Executive Officer
Riggio, Stephen 54 2010 Vice Chairman of the Board
Lombardi, Joseph 47 2003 Chief Financial Officer
Kahn, J. Alan 62 2002 President of Barnes & Noble Publishing Group
Klipper, Mitchell 52 2010 Chief Executive Officer - Retail Group
Iannone, Jamie 38 2010 President - Barnes & Noble Digital Products
Foley, John 2010 President - Barnes & Noble eCommerce
Duffy, William 53 2002 Executive Vice President - Distribution and Logistics
Gilbert, Dan 2010 Executive Vice President - Operations and Customer Service
Weber, Tracey 2010 Executive Vice President - Textbooks and Digital Education, Barnes & Noble.com
Keating, Mary 52 1998 Senior Vice President - Corporate Communications and Public Affairs
Grady-Troia, Christopher 57 2004 Vice President, Chief Information Officer
DeFelice, Gene 2010 Vice President, General Counsel, Corporate Secretary
Lindstrom, Allen 42 2007 Vice President, Corporate Controller
Smith, Michelle 56 1996 Vice President - Human Resources
Deason, David 50 1997 Vice President - Barnes & Noble Development
Bottini, Mark 48 2003 Vice President, Director - Stores
Carey, Jaime 48 2008 Chief Merchandising Officer
Dillard, William 66 1993 Director
Miller, Irene 58 1995 Director
Monaco, Margaret 61 1995 Director
Higgins, Patricia 61 2006 Director
Campbell, George 65 2008 Director
Golden, David 2010 Director
Wilson, David 2010 Director

Address:
122 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York 10011
U.S.A.
 
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