Barnes and Noble has announced their intention of spinning off their college bookstore division into its own autonomous unit called Barnes and Noble for Education.
Barnes and Noble for Education will be its own publicly traded company and the anticipated restructuring should be completed by late August. This is around the same time period in which Nook Digital will also become separated from the bookstore chain into its own company.
There are currently over 714 B&N stores on college and university campuses in the United States. In the last financial quarter the educational unit garnered over $751 million in revenue and is fairly stable in terms of growth. Likely investors will be flocking to invest in Nook Education when it becomes available.
Barnes and Noble is basically splitting themselves apart right now. By the end of the year the bookstore chain, college bookstore unit and Nook Digital will become three different companies with completely different ways of operating. This might be for the best, because no longer will most decisions have to be made by the same executive team. If the College bookstore wants to expand their textbook rental system, they are only accountable to themselves and not the same executive team in charge of everything else.
Will splitting the college bookstore into its own company actually happen? Barnes and Noble has had an extensive track record in recent years in flip flopping in all major decisions.
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.
