14 DAY TRIAL // It appears that at least one competitor on the e-reader and tablet market has seen enough success to seriously consider big plans for the future.
Barnes and Noble have recently published their financial results, but what may stand out most is the part about future plans.
Granted, all the praise that the Nook Color and Nook Tablet received, not to mention the common Nook e-readers, is nothing to scoff at.
That said, what Barnes & Noble suggested might happen in the future is a consequence of this success.
Quite simply, B&N is considering spinning off its e-reader and tablet business.
That is, it is looking into the possibility of turning the Nook division into a standalone company, one called just that: Nook.
“We see substantial value in what we’ve built with our NOOK business in only two years, and we believe it’s the right time to investigate our options to unlock that value. In NOOK, we’ve established one of the world’s best retail platforms for the sale of digital copyright content,” said William Lynch, chief executive officer at Barnes & Noble.
“We have a large and growing installed base of millions of satisfied customers buying digital content from us, and we have a NOOK business that’s growing rapidly year-over-year and should be approximately $1.5 billion in comparable sales this fiscal year. Between continued projected growth in the U.S., and the opportunity for NOOK internationally in the next 12 months, we expect the business to continue to scale rapidly for the foreseeable future.”
There is no guarantee that a separation will really happen and, even if it does, it will take some time for the decision to be made (B&N was deliberately vague).
Still, the option is enough to make it clear for Amazon that its strategy to promote the Kindle may have to be pushed up a notch.