Barnes & Noble Unveils New Version Of Its Nook E-Book Reader
24 Mayo 2011 - 10:49AM
Noticias Dow Jones
Barnes & Noble Inc. (BKS), fresh off an offer to be acquired
by John Malone's Liberty Media (LCAPA), unveiled a new version of
its popular Nook electronic-book reader with a touch screen, a
two-month battery life and the latest version of the e-book
industry's e-Ink technology.
Customers who pre-order the device, at $139 apiece, can expect
delivery by Father's Day, Chief Executive William Lynch told media
and invited guests at a press conference at its flagship Union
Square store here.
Lynch also said Barnes & Noble believes its Nook Color
device, at $249, is the best selling tablet using Google Inc.'s
(GOOG) Android software and second only to Apple Inc. (AAPL) in
terms of overall tablet sales. The company recently added more
tablet functionality and an application store to Nook Color to
enhance what it calls the "Reader's Tablet."
The previous versions of the e-Ink Nook will be phased out and
discounted by $30 to $119 and $169 apiece, respectively, for the
WiFi and 3G versions, while supplies last.
New Nooks will hold up to 1,000 books and are the easiest and
most portable e-reader ever, Lynch said.
Barnes & Noble is fighting to further entrench Nook as the
No. 2 e-reader series. It believes it controls more than a quarter
of the e-book market, with Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) boasting most of
the rest. Various estimates put the rapidly growing market at $1
billion this year, with the potential to nearly triple next
year.
Executives in a question and answer session declined to discuss
the Liberty offer or dissident activist shareholder Ron Burkle.
Burkle's Yucaipa has mostly kept to itself since losing a proxy
battle last year to unseat Barnes & Noble Chairman Leonard
Riggio and two other board members, but late Monday announced the
purchase 603,000 additional shares.
The purchase brings Burkle's stake above 19.7%, closer to a 20%
threshold that would trigger Barnes & Noble's shareholder
rights plan. The company instituted that poison pill to prevent
Burkle or others from taking control of the company at a price it
feels is too low.
By increasing his stake, Burkle, who unsuccessfully tried to
have the pill threshold raised to at least the 30% stake that
Riggio owns, positions himself to better challenge the Liberty
offer should Barnes & Noble accept it and Burkle deems the
$17-per-share bid that values the bookseller at $1.02 billion too
low.
Liberty CEO Gregory Maffei was in attendance, and was seen
chatting with Barnes & Noble CEO Lynch about new ideas for
digital books following the question-and-answer session. Lynch and
Maffei left the event together, and both executives were smiling
and chatting about their families.
The stock has been driven past Liberty's offer by merger
arbitrageurs and other investors who agree with many analysts that
a higher bid is warranted. Barnes & Noble reportedly had hoped
for an offer of at least $20 a share when it put itself up for sale
last August, but attracted no public suitors until the Liberty
offer was made public last week.
Barnes & Noble shares were up 2.3% at $19.02 shortly after
11 a.m. EST.
-By Maxwell Murphy, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2171;
maxwell.murphy@dowjones.com
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