The retailer said a Business Insider report that it had eliminated
its entire Nook hardware engineering team was incorrect but conceded
there were some job cuts. It did not provide details.
"We've been very clear about our focus on rationalizing the NOOK
business and positioning it for future success and value creation.
As we've aligned NOOK's cost structure with business realities,
staffing levels in certain areas of our organization have changed,
leading to some job eliminations," Barnes & Noble spokeswoman Mary
Ellen Keating said in an e-mail.
Revenue for its Nook business fell 60.5 percent during the holiday
season even as its core bookselling business stabilized.
"We see BKS (Barnes & Noble) taking steps in the right direction — right sizing the expense structure of NOOK in an attempt to regain
profitability," Stifel Nicolaus analyst David Schick wrote in a
research note.
Barnes & Noble scaled back its Nook business in 2013 after losing
hundreds of millions of dollars on a venture designed to fend off
Amazon.com Inc <AMZN.O> in the e-business business.
[to top of second column] |
Chief Executive Michael Huseby told Reuters last month that Barnes &
Noble planned to launch new devices in 2014.
Shares were up 7.1 percent to $15.81 in afternoon trading on Monday.
(Reporting by Phil Wahba in New York;
editing by Amanda Kwan)
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