"Barnes & Noble Set To Be Sold To Elliott Management For About $683 Million"

[Froide]

Dwyer, Colin. (June 7, 2019). "Barnes & Noble Set To Be Sold To Elliott Management For About $683 Million". NPR News.

Excerpts:

The move marks Elliott's second major splash in the world of books in the span of a year. Last June the New York-based hedge fund acquired Waterstones, which, with more than 280 bookshops, is the largest retail bookseller in the U.K.

Now, Elliott is set to own the largest bookseller in the U.S., too.

Elliott was careful to note that "each bookseller will operate independently" — but added that "they will share a common CEO and benefit from the sharing of best practice between the companies." That CEO is James Daunt, the British-born chief of Waterstones, who plans to head up both companies from New York City.

[binaryhermit]

This news is a couple months old

[fjtorres]

The deal closed this week.

https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/...se-of-b-n.html

It's final.

[Quoth]

And related:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/20...ve-bookselling
People resigning from Waterstones because pay is too low. (Same owner now).

I can't see this being good for people working in Barnes & Noble. It's bad for ANYONE to be owned by a hedge fund or Venture Capitalists. No vision. Short term bottom line and often asset stripping. I'm not suggesting Elliot does those, just a general observation. Hanson Trust asset stripped UK Ever Ready. They and Energiser are now owned by a Pet food company.

But the WORST exploitation of authors and their warehouse workers related to books, paper and electronic is Amazon. Also involved in exploitation of user information (web & alexa) and using contractors exploiting children.
The exclusivity on Amazon KDP Select and Scout is a disgrace. Amazon Prime & Unlimited is exploitive.

Do not sign up to Select, Unlimited or Prime, those are immoral!

When is their monopoly building going to be stopped?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...ions_by_Amazon

[Dr. Drib]

^ My off-topic opinion to your off-topic frustrations:

I think Kindle Unlimited is wonderful. I heartily recommend it if you are a somewhat fast reader and enjoy reading writings by (mainly) indie authors.

Here's a link to Amazon to learn more:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/custo...deId=201550610

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

The deal closed this week.

https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/...se-of-b-n.html

It's final.

One of the things the new CEO had to say (from the article)...

This is a very good day for bookselling. Barnes & Noble is the greatest of all bookstore names and will now benefit from the support of an owner committed to physical bookselling.

My emphasis on "physical." Maybe I'm reading too much into this but, considering that Waterstones dropped eBooks, I have to wonder if this is the end of the Nook.

[CWatkinsNash]

Originally Posted by rcentros

One of the things the new CEO had to say (from the article)...



My emphasis on "physical." Maybe I'm reading too much into this but, considering that Waterstones dropped eBooks, I have to wonder if this is the end of the Nook.

Wasn't Nook moved off as its own independent entity some time ago? I don't think they've even been handling much of their own stuff anymore, outsourcing most of it. None of the articles I've looked at seem to mention the Nook division at all, so I'm wondering if it was even part of the package.

[Dr. Drib]

^ I, too, seem to recall reading that - perhaps here on Mobileread.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by FrustratedReader

When is their monopoly building going to be stopped?

Five years *after* they become a *real* monopoly? 50% of Pbooks or 5% of US retail is a long way from monopoly, myths aside.

So, don't hold your breath. Besides, Amazon is expanding horizontally, not vertically, anyway. There's more money in other, new, businesses than scrounging for more nickles selling pbooks.

Like this:
https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/4/18...pacex-starlink

As for the warehouses, don't fret: as soon as they're done automating the warehouses, nobody will need to work in their new dark warhouses. That's what they bought KIVA for.

http://www.dcvelocity.com/articles/2...the-warehouse/

Books are a trivial part of their business and it's not their fault they've been gifted with sigularly incompetent competitors in that space.

https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/...ht-amazon.html

In their other business they deal with competent opponents like Microsoft Azure, Google Assistant, WalMart, etc.

As for B&N, there is some hope:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/20...rned-to-profit

https://www.theguardian.com/books/sh...e_iOSApp_Other

B&N might still have a second chapter if Daunt makes the right moves.

[lumpynose]

Originally Posted by rcentros

My emphasis on "physical." Maybe I'm reading too much into this but, considering that Waterstones dropped eBooks, I have to wonder if this is the end of the Nook.

It always seemed to me that B&N and its Nook were barely surviving so in that sense I'd guess that it's not likely to affect a lot of customers.

[Deskisamess]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

^ My off-topic opinion to your off-topic frustrations:

I think Kindle Unlimited is wonderful. I heartily recommend it if you are a somewhat fast reader and enjoy reading writings by (mainly) indie authors.

Here's a link to Amazon to learn more:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/custo...deId=201550610

I totally agree. I've really enjoyed reading new authors in KU. It's well worth it for my reading taste and style.

[Anabana]

A bit more on OT Frustrations...

Here are some excerpts from a Forbes article written by Brittain Ladd (forbes.com Jul 29, 2018):

[Amazon is big, but it controls only 5% of all retail sales in the U.S. and only 1% globally, according to Jodi Seth, head of policy communications for Amazon. By 2020, the number is estimated to increase to 10% of all retail sales in the U.S.]

[According to the United States Department of Justice, "as a practical matter, a market share of greater than 50% has been necessary for courts to find the existence of monopoly power."]

Perhaps some divisions (BOOKS?) will reach 50%(?) and be subject to scrutiny. Would the books that are sold by Amazon be separate from those sold by Amazon sellers? Not sure what the % might be for each side of that market...

[fjtorres]

Some people are optimistic:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/08/b...mes-daunt.html

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Anabana

Perhaps some divisions (BOOKS?) will reach 50%(?) and be subject to scrutiny.

It is very unlikely though not impossible.

It has happened once, that an antitrust judge allowed a trial by accepting a biased and carefully sculpted definition of "relevant market" designed to exclude most competitors. Despite this, the judge was forced to issue a judgment of no harm done and had to settle for branding the target as a "monopolist". It cost them respectable money but they survived, outlived the instigators, and are currently prospering. Unlike the judge's reputation. Abusing the legal system quietly ended his career. No citations, no significant cases.

It might happen again but as I said it is unlikely.

A more relevant case was the merger of Random House and Penguin who at the time controlled the copyright of half the BPH books, not just retailed them. The feds shrugged, said the publishing world is much bigger than trade books, and rubberstamped the deal.

Moral: the relevant market for antitrust in publishing is *all* the books sold in the US, $27B, not the $14 billion sold to consumers through trade books,of which Amazon moves about half. That's maybe $7B of the $27B market, or about 26%. Nowhere near a monopoly even in publishing alone.

Not even a hanging judge can pretrend there's a case there.

Besides, the real issue isn't that Amazon is too strong but that everybody else is too weak.
Maybe Daunt can do something about that.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by FrustratedReader

And related:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/20...ve-bookselling
People resigning from Waterstones because pay is too low. (Same owner now).

I can't see this being good for people working in Barnes & Noble. It's bad for ANYONE to be owned by a hedge fund or Venture Capitalists. No vision. Short term bottom line and often asset stripping. I'm not suggesting Elliot does those, just a general observation. Hanson Trust asset stripped UK Ever Ready. They and Energiser are now owned by a Pet food company.

But the WORST exploitation of authors and their warehouse workers related to books, paper and electronic is Amazon. Also involved in exploitation of user information (web & alexa) and using contractors exploiting children.
The exclusivity on Amazon KDP Select and Scout is a disgrace. Amazon Prime & Unlimited is exploitive.

Do not sign up to Select, Unlimited or Prime, those are immoral!

When is their monopoly building going to be stopped?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...ions_by_Amazon

Something similar happened some yrs back to one of the big movie studios (I think 20th Century Fox). For a while they were owned and run by people who weren't learned in the movie industry. For all I know they may still be, but anyway if someone who doesn't know what they're doing takes over any business it can only lead to trouble I think.