Activist investor's newest target: Barnes & Noble

[J. Strnad]

Or B&N could come out with their own proprietary DRM on Fictionwise.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by markbot

Isn't Liberty already an activist investor?

The B&N deal with liberty is closer to a loan than a traditional investment. They get some stock but they also get regular payments.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by J. Strnad

Or B&N could come out with their own proprietary DRM on Fictionwise.

Well, Fictionwise *started* with their own proprietary DRM which they could retain in a post-Nook scenario. But it would be limited to apps and early Nooks. Whereas in a post DRM-world they would be free to sell to all comers, includding Kindle customers. (Which they currently do to some extent.)

[charmian]

Why would it benefit B&N to create proprietary DRM? They already aren't paying Adobe licensing fees, IIRC.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by charmian

Why would it benefit B&N to create proprietary DRM? They already aren't paying Adobe licensing fees, IIRC.

They didn't create it; they *bought* it when they bought Fictionwise. (Then they got Adobe to add it to their SDK. It is available to hardware developers but nobody has chosen to support it besides B&N.)

And they are definitely using Adobe's SDK and ADEPT authorization servers (at a minimum) so it is most likely they are paying the Adobe Tax along with Sony and Kobo. And all the generics.

Adobe's not in the ebook DRM business as a public service.

[MrsJoseph]

I wonder how the MS investment/partnership affects this.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Hmm...
Selling/spinning off Nook doesn't necessarily mean getting out of the ebook business. B&N could still tie to an independent Nook the way Borders tied to Kobo.

A Nook spin off would entail keeping ebooks and other digital media. That's the future; paper's dying. Showcase the whole thing with a strong online store and small B&M stores inside malls and other high traffic areas.

[bill_mchale]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

A Nook spin off would entail keeping ebooks and other digital media. That's the future; paper's dying. Showcase the whole thing with a strong online store and small B&M stores inside malls and other high traffic areas.

I wouldn't be too quick to write paper off completely. The market for paper books is definitely contracting, but I suspect that the rise of print on demand, and people who just prefer paper books will allow it to remain a niche (perhaps 30% of the book market in general, maybe 10-15% of the fiction market). The question is, does Walmart and Target become our only local source of paper books (or redbox like kiosks?) or do we still have some dedicated stores.

--
Bill

[Kali Yuga]

Originally Posted by bill_mchale

I wouldn't be too quick to write paper off completely.....

The question is whether enough people will want to buy books to make a big chain still viable.

Big stores have big overheads and still only offer a fraction of the selection of an online store. As revenues and margins continue to shrink, the stores will be increasingly difficult to keep open.

It's going to be difficult and expensive (and damaging to the brand) to downsize a store, and there's a limit to the non-book stuff they can sell without also damaging their brand, or competing with companies like Walmart, Target or Best Buy -- some of which are experiencing their own sales declines.

Browsing in-store and buying on-line is, obviously, one of the big problems facing all brick & mortar retailers. B&N cannot afford to run a bunch of 27000 square foot showrooms, where half the foot traffic winds up driving Amazon's sales.

POD will work very well for college and technical stores, but it's probably already too late for that to be anything more than a JIT supplement for niche needs.

Originally Posted by BillMcHale

Do Walmart and Target become our only local source of paper books?

Are Walmart and Target your local source of CD's and DVD's? Why will books be any different?

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Kali Yuga

Big stores have big overheads and still only offer a fraction of the selection of an online store. As revenues and margins continue to shrink, the stores will be increasingly difficult to keep open.

The key question for the "OldCo" part of B&N is which part of "bookstore" they are going to stake its future on: the "book" or the "store".

If they're going to bet on the store, they need to find how to move enough product to pay for the facility costs and make a fair return on investment. Which means supplementing/replacing books as their primary revenue source.

If they're going to bet on the book, they need to find how to match the facility to the volume of revenue the books can bring. They either shrink the facility or figure out how to move more books--with ties to online, regional storage houses for next-day special orders, POD, etc...

It's not a given that *all* bookstores are going to go away; just certain *types* of bookstores. It may be the big chain stores, it might be the indies, it might be some of each.

It will simply be a matter of who best adapts to consumers' evolving needs.

[khalleron]

Originally Posted by Kali Yuga

Are Walmart and Target your local source of CD's and DVD's?

Why, yes. Yes, they are.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Kali Yuga

Are Walmart and Target your local source of CD's and DVD's? Why will books be any different?

Not me. I don't buy CDs and DVDs anymore. I stream music and video from the net for $7.99/mo.

My sources for music are free and originate from internet radio stations and YouTube. For videos, my sources are Hulu, networks, and YouTube for the free stuff; and Netflix for the paid stuff.