Leonard Riggio, founder and chairman of Barnes & Noble Inc. (New York), has dropped his plans to split the company in two by buying the bookstores and running them separately.
The news came as the retailer reported a loss of $87 million for the quarter ending July 27, 2013, more than double the loss it had reported in the same quarter a year ago. Store sales fell nearly 10 percent while sales for Nook, the digital book operation, fell 20 percent. Store sales still represent about 87 percent of the company’s business.
That was one of the problems when Riggio announced his desire to buy the company’s 675 stores in February, a plan that essentially would have split the company in half. It was unclear how much he would have to pay, though the board said it would reject any offer significantly short of $1 billion.
He never made a formal offer to the board, and The New York Times has reported that he has now become hesitant to create distractions in company operations. Riggio is now running Barnes & Noble again, after the resignation in July of William Lynch.
“While I reserve the right to pursue an offer in the future, I believe it is in the company’s best interests to focus on the business at hand,” he said in a statement.