Liberty Media Corp., John Malone's media empire that includes QVC, offered to buy bookseller Barnes & Noble, Inc. for $17 per share, or about $1 billion. Barnes & Noble, currently the largest operator of traditional bookstores in the US with 705 stores across 50 states, is evaluating the offer, which is contingent on further participation of B&N chairman Leonard Riggio. Share price shot up to about $17, although negotiations may push it higher.
The Nook e-reader became B & N's ace-in-the-hole for avoiding bankruptcy like Borders, capturing 25% of the digital book market since and selling 1.5 million magazine subscriptions and single copy sales since debuting in October 2009. The latest version came out Tuesday.
According to Forrester Research, 16 million e-readers were sold over the last two years, with total e-book sales of $300 million in 2009 and $966 million in 2010. E-book sales are expected to total $1.3 billion by the end of 2011 and about $3 billion by 2015. That's Malone's bet: the B & N Nook will continue to grab a bigger share of an e-reader and e-book market where electrons are far, far cheaper to ship and sell than paper.
It's a good bet. Amazon.com, which produces the e-reader Kindle, noted that it sold more electronic copies of books than printed versions for the first time ever. Since April 1, Amazon sold 105 copies of e-books for every 100 copies of printed books. That trend is also likely to continue.
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