Although there have been doubts about the Nook (and e-book readers in general) lately, Barnes & Noble isn’t giving up on the brand anytime soon.
CEO William Lynch told CNBC on Friday that Barnes & Noble will continue to reinforce the relationship between the digital Nook e-book brand and its brick-and-mortar stores.
Rebuffing the idea that B&N would be spinning off its Nook unit, instead, Lynch reaffirmed the company’s stance on the future of digital content:
The growth is going to be in digital, hence our investments in digital and how we’ve scaled that business. But the physical book business, by any measure and any projection, will continue to be the largest part of the business, and we’ve been growing share there, and in fact growing the business in absolute terms…That is a very profitable side of the business.
Earlier this week, Barnes & Noble said in a statement that it examining how to “unlock” the value of the Nook unit after disappointing sales results — especially for the Nook Simple Touch reader that debuted in May.
In December, Barnes & Noble reported second fiscal quarter losses of $6.6 million, although there was a silver lining: the recently released Nook Tablet is said to be the fastest selling Nook product in history.
Nevertheless, Lynch argued during the CNBC interview that the Nook brand is “undervalued,” and that B&N has established the #2 brand in the digital book business with a value of $1.5 billion after two years.
To see more from the interview, check out the video over on CNBC.
[via PaidContent]
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