Who Will Buy Barnes & Noble?

Have you ever dreamed of owning your own hugely successful (by my standards) $700 million dollar book store chain? Well now's your chance -- better get rolling those nickels.

Speculation abounds about potential buyers ranging from Amazon to Microsoft, but only time will tell who will take over the well-known book empire.

Leonard Riggio, the founder and biggest shareholder of Barnes & Noble, has made it known that he would be willing and eager to stay with the company no matter what the Board's evaluations of strategic alternatives comes to -- be it the sale of the company or the adoption of it into a wider investor group.

In any case, I personally would be sad to see Barnes & Noble change hands to someone who wouldn't continue on with some of the great services that Barnes & Noble currently has to offer including their newest feature -- a text book rental program for college students that is set to roll out fall 2010. A program that will, no doubt, save students hundreds of dollars in inflated text book costs.

They had this to say in this week's Press Release:

“We believe the combination of great value, easy access, and convenience has fueled the overwhelmingly positive response to our campus bookstore rental program,” said Jade Roth, Vice President, Books & Digital Strategy for Barnes & Noble College Booksellers. “The addition of rentals means that college students have all the options they want, many at great cost savings, without shopping multiple locations and vendors. Additionally, students can shop with the assurance that they are getting the right book because we work directly with their faculty members. And, of course, they have the added confidence of knowing they are managing their textbook needs through Barnes & Noble, the bookstore they grew up with and trust, located on their campus.”

With this great service just about to be unrolled, it would be heart breaking to see the chain sold to someone that didn't continue with Barnes & Noble's plans.

Promise me that if you buy Barnes & Noble you'll hire on Leonard Riggio and have him continue on with this? That's all I ask.

By: Bambi Blue

Bambi Blue is a freelance writer, editor, and codemonkey living in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. She moonlights as a jazz musician, a social butterfly, and most apparently a weisenheimer. Loves to cook, hates to clean, and can easily be found on Twitter.