Over the past years we’ve heard a lot of speculation regarding Microsoft’s possible investment/involvement in Barnes and Noble. They already spent some money in that direction and now they may need to spend more, since B&N has some serious trouble.
The company posted $119 million loss in Q4 2013 and they are supposed to partner with third party companies on future Nook tablets. In Q4 2012, the company lost less, about $56.9 million, so they actually doubled losses. Revenues have dropped both at retail outlets and the Nook digital business, while the e-reader and ebook arm registered a 34% drop from Q4 2012.
Device sale decreased dramatically, so B&N is certainly no competition for Amazon, at least not right now. I have to say I liked their devices and the potential was great, but Amazon’s Kindle Fire was too well established on the market to fail. So, who is that unnamed hardware partner to save B&N? Huawei? Samsung? Any other names?
