NEW YORK- John Malone of Liberty Media Corp has proposed to buy & Barnes Noble Inc. 1.02 billion, nine months after that most chain bookstores U.S. himself put on sale.
Liberty Media offers $17 per share, a premium of 20.5% on Barnes & Noble of the closure of the shares Thursday, an agreement which would a foot in the industry growth of e-books dominated by Amazon.com Inc..
Noble & Barnes, who has faced years of decline of sales of the printed book itself put on sale last August saying its shares were dumped.
He invested in the development of his popular nook e-reader, launched in 2009, in a bid to remake itself as a digital bookseller and avoid the fate of rival borders Group Ltd., which filed for protection in bankruptcy in February.
Barnes & Noble, said Liberty Media offer has not yet been assessed by the Special Committee, and a spokesman refused to say whether another company has come forward with an offer.
In early March, an investment banker told Reuters that the auction process had slowed to a crawl.
"I would find $17 as point of departure - some investors would have closer to $20," Morningstar analyst Pete Wahlstrom told Reuters. He said stock Barnes & Noble is a value of $16.
Actions past 24.7% to $17.60 in the trade after hours after the announcement which suggests that investors believe that other offers may be coming or that Barnes & Noble shareholders will be more demanding.
KEEPING RIGGIO IN THE FOLD
Founder, President and top shareholder in the Barnes & Noble Leonard Riggio, last year, said that he considered taking the company private with partners. He is the owner of 29.7% of the shares.
Offer freedom is conditional to Riggio, keeping a participation in the Noble & Barnes, which he built a bookstore local to New York in a national chain in the 1970s, and is involved in the operation of the company remainedsaid Wahlstrom would be positive because of his knowledge of the sale of books.
Liberty Media pursues a strategy of recent years to align related to Active Media cheap in the hope of making outsized investment returns.
In February 2009, Malone uproot a participation of 40% of Sirius XM Radio by 530 million dollars of loans to the satellite radio company who was at the edge on the edge of bankruptcy. Malone has been rewarded in only a few months after Sirius turn around his company and the challenge today is more than 3.5 billion dollars.
Riggio, last September has survived a fight of proxy by the shareholder No. 2 of Barnes & Noble, investor Ron Burkle, who accused him of poor management of the company for the benefit of his family. Burkle, Yucaipa Companies, investment company is the owner of 18.7% of the shares.
If the agreement to spend $ 17 per share, Burkle would take a loss because he bought most of the shares in November 2009, when they were hovering near $20.
The Burkle spokesman does not immediately return a request for comments.
Barnes & Noble which operates 720 bookstores, as well as a string of college campus stores, in February suspended its dividend to save cash and to accumulate the corner to compete with Amazon Kindle and iPad of Apple Inc..
Barnes & Noble will present a new e-reader at a media event in New York on Wednesday. Forrester Research estimates that the corner is the second best-selling dedicated e-reader, after Kindle for Amazon.
Shares collapsed in February after Barnes & Noble suspended dividend and reported a loss of one quarter of holiday. They fall as low as $8.45 a month ago before rallying.
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