BARNES & NOBLE cut its Nook sales forecast for this year and shocked investors by saying it was considering a sale of the electronic reader and tablet business, sending its shares down more than 20 per cent.
The bookseller has been banking on the Nook for growth, so news that holiday sales of the basic touchscreen e-reader were disappointing raised investors’ fears the group was struggling to keep up with Amazon’s Kindle.
The largest US bookstore chain has poured tens of millions of dollars into developing and promoting the Nook, hurting its results.
Barnes & Noble lowered the full-year sales forecast for the Nook business to $1.5 billion from $1.8 billion.
It said holiday sales of its Nook Simple Touch, the cheapest Nook device at $99, fell short of expectations, and cited this as a reason for the lower forecast.
“They’re going to have to raise capital for Nook if they want to stay viable,” said Morningstar analyst Pete Wahlstrom.
Amazon last week said it had sold one million Kindle devices, which includes the Fire tablet and a touchscreen device, per week in December. – (Reuters)
