Jun 7, 2019 - Economy

Elliott Management buys Barnes & Noble for about $476 million

Dan Primack

This is an image of a Barnes & Nobles storefront. — Barnes & Noble store in New Jersey. Photo: Michael Brochstein/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Elliott Management has agreed to buy book retailer Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS) for around $476 million in cash, or $6.50 per share.

Why it matters: Barnes & Noble remains the country's largest physical book retailer, and a key distribution and marketing partner for publishers.

Silver lining: Elliott owns British bookseller Waterstones, and will put Waterstones CEO James Daunt in charge of both companies (while keeping operations separate). Daunt has successfully grown Waterstones in the digital age, even since Elliott's takeover.

The bottom line:

"Barnes & Noble, with more than 600 stores, has tried strategies such as offering food and coffee and selling non-book merchandise, but has failed to stem the onslaught of Amazon."

— Anne Riley Moffat, Bloomberg

Go deeper: How Barnes & Noble fell to Amazon

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Elliott Management buys Barnes & Noble for about $476 million

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