Barnes and Noble has agreed to pay former CEO Ron Boire $4,825,600 in severance. Ron will be forfeiting all of the equity awards that were granted to to him. He was granted 368,098 sign-on restricted stock units when he first took the job on September 8, 2015 and the 143,540 restricted stock units and 143,540 performance-based stock units granted to him on July 14, 2016.
Ron Boire was on the job for less than one year before he was fired by Barnes and Noble. He was not the right man for the company because he did not have any bookselling experience. He was the former CEO of Brookstone, a chain that improved on his watch but nevertheless filed for bankruptcy protection two years after he left. From 2003 to 2006 he worked at Best Buy and he was responsible for global technology and vendor management, global sourcing, and private label development.
Barnes and Noble has admitted that they made a mistake with Boire and have publicly stated that they will take their time finding someone else.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.