Barnes and Noble - a Financial Report

Barnes & Noble Inc. – A Financial Report

- Ramakrishna Rajasekhar

Company Background and Business Environment Barnes & Noble Inc., a New York based book retailer, founded in 1986, operates 778 bookstores in different locations across the U.S. Of the total bookstores run by the company, 52 of them operate under the B. Dalton Bookseller trade name. The company operates an e-bookstore, under the banner barnesandnoble.com, which provides around 700,000 titles to its customers.

The major product lines at the Barnes & Noble bookstore are trade books such as

hardcover and paperback consumer titles; educational and non-fiction books such as textbooks, biographies, photography, religion, cook books, language books, travel and leisure and reference books; mass-market books such as mystery, romance, science fiction and other fiction; children’s books, bargain priced books, magazines ranging from business to electronics to sports, toys and games, home and gift products and café products and services, a wide range of CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray discs ranging from music, movies, TV seasons, documentaries, games, instructional and self-help sections. In addition to the aforementioned products, the Barnes & Noble website also offers access to a personalized user account, book clubs, audio-books, B&N Mobile feature, book clubs and online updates and B&N recommendations. The company competes with large bookstores including Borders Group, Inc. (BGP) and Books-A-Million Inc. (BAMM).

  Goals and Key Strategies Barnes & Noble’s primary goal is to increase its market share in the industry and increase its EPS. Recently, the company acquired the Barnes & Noble College Booksellers Inc. in a bid to increase customers and augment revenue. The company also launched its own e-book

store with an in-store access to around 700,000 e-book titles, acclaimed to be twice of what its competitor Amazon offers. In order to increase their profitability and reach out to the customers,...