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Investment Group Buys 5.7% Stake in B&N, Demands Replacement of Len Riggio’s Taxidermist

A serial Barnes & Noble investor has just re-invested in the company. Their presence will add strife and make it harder to turn the company around.

From PW:

An investment group led by Richard Schottenfeld, head of New York City-based Schottenfeld Management Corp., has acquired a 5.68% stake in Barnes & Noble.

According to a filing made with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Schottenfeld began buying B&N shares on May 29 and made his most recent purchase July 16, accumulating 4.2 million B&N shares. Schottenfeld paid between $5.32 and $6.57 per share for his stake. B&N’s shares began the year trading at $6.70, and closed at $5.65 per share on July 23.

In its filing, Schottenfeld said it purchased its stake believing B&N’s shares are “substantially undervalued and represent an attractive investment opportunity.” The filing further stated that representatives from Schottenfeld have already talked to B&N about ways to increase shareholder value, and intend to continue to hold discussions with B&N management and its board to review strategic alternatives the company might pursue.

You can find the SEC filing over here.

It’s worth noting that Schottenfeld last invested in B&N in 2012, and then sold off its stock in 2015 after B&N spun off B&N Education. One of the things Schottenfeld wanted back then was for B&N to spin off the Nook division.  They made this proposal only a few weeks before Nook imploded and began its permanent decline into irrelevance.

Then, as now, Schottenfeld was driven not by making B&N healthier but by getting the biggest return for stockholders. After Schottenfeld sold its stock, B&N continued to decline both in value and revenue.

Whatever Schottenfeld is proposing this time around isn’t going to kill B&N but it certainly will not help the retailer any in the long run.

Really, what we have here is a light version of the vulture investment funds that buy up retailers like Toys R Us, load them up with debt, and sell them off. While Schottenfeld isn’t quite that bad, they certainly aren’t out to help the company, either.

image by Angel Xavier Viera via Flickr

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Comments


Peacedance July 25, 2018 um 9:29 am

That’s what I thought when I read the headline. Another company they’re going to strip of any value and run into the ground, eventually. 🙁


Allen F July 25, 2018 um 12:20 pm

What an idiot. They know Riggio isn’t going to budge, so they know they aren’t going to get what they want. Just another dang day-trader hoping for a fast buck.


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