Just a few months ago, rumors swirled about Microsoft offering to pay $1 billion for Barnes & Noble’s NOOK digital assets. But the bookseller now says that those plans have been scrapped while B&N chairman Leonard Riggio has ditched his own plan to separate the company.
Barnes & Noble posted another disappointing quarter earnings report on Tuesday, but it doesn’t appear that the company has any big changes coming in the near future.
Riggio, who is basically running the company following ex-CEO William Lynch’s departure last month, originally stated that he wanted to purchase 675 B&N stores and split up the company. But now he’s decided to back off on that idea, just as the company has stopped any discussions with Microsoft to acquire its NOOK e-book platform.
B&N’s struggles have been well documented, and the company has failed to make inroads next to Amazon.com. A $300 million investment from Microsoft last year in the Nook business unit hasn’t done much to help.
This all comes after a little more than a year after Microsoft invested $300 million for its existing stake in Nook Media. The partnership between Microsoft and B&N so far has produced very little in the way of visible results.
