Fly, Little Nook! Fly!

Barnes & Noble has decided to split off its Nook division, which includes its profitable B&N College bookstores in universities around the country.

Apparently the Nook is losing market share to Kindle and iPad.  (My own ebook sales through the Nook store are roughly 10% of my total, FWIW.)  The division is also losing money, though I can’t imagine why.  It’s not as if they’re renting a lot of retail space or anything.

B&N’s brick-and-mortar stores are somewhat more profitable than they have been, apparently because they’ve surrendered a lot of floor space to toys and whatever.  Toys have a bigger profit margin.

Forgive me here, but it seems to me that the whole announcement is just a gimmick to boost B&N stock.  The brick-and-mortar stores and the Nook aren’t any more or less valuable than they were yesterday, it’s just that the stock has gone up (a mere five percent or so).

What this tells me is that B&N is looking for someone to either buy the Nook division or the retail stores, or both, and figures the sale would be more likely if the two divisions were split.  (An attempt to get Microsoft to buy the Nook failed a couple years ago.)

And what this tells me is that B&N’s board is more concerned with stock gimmicks than developing an actual vision for the company.  They’re flailing around selling toys and boosting their stock price in hopes of seeming more attractive to someone who will rescue them from themselves, and that’s because they have no clue and are desperate for rescue.

So okay, it’s another victory for Amazon.  (“You will be assimilated!”)  They’ve got their biggest domestic rival staggering around the ring, out on their feet, and without an idea in their head.

Though on the slightly brighter side, B&N is reporting that they’re selling a bunch of Hachette books.  Since Amazon continues to punch themselves in the face in their quarrel with Hachette, people who want to read books by JK Rowling or James Patterson or James S.A. Corey or Walter Jon Williams are going to have to buy them somewhere else, and apparently Barnes & Noble is only too happy to oblige.

So go make Barnes & Noble happy!  Buy something from them already!