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Barnes & Noble Buys Back Nook Stake From Pearson
By DealBook
December 23, 2014 11:03 am December 23, 2014 11:03 am Comment
Barnes & Noble said on Tuesday that it had reached an agreement to buy back Pearson’s stake in the booksellers’s struggling e-book business, Nook Media, for nearly $28 million.

The company said that it would pay $13.75 million in cash and 602,927 shares of Barnes & Noble’s common stock. The move follows an exit by Microsoft from Nook earlier this month. Barnes & Noble bought out the software giant’s stake for about $120 million.

In December 2012, Pearson, the British education and publishing company and owner of The Financial Times, had followed Microsoft’s lead in investing in the Nook, taking a 5 percent for $89.5 million after Microsoft had acquired 16.8 percent stake for $300 million.

Barnes & Noble said in a statement on Tuesday that the transaction would strengthen its balance sheet ” and further simplify the corporate structure by giving the company ownership (through its subsidiaries) of 100 percent of Nook Media.”

The company is planning to split into companies, one with Nook and its college bookstores and another consisting of the retail stores and website, by the end of August.

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