Pages

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

PRESS RELEASE - Barnes & Noble Continues Its UK Expansion by Partnering with Dixons Retail...

Barnes & Noble Continues Its UK Expansion by Partnering with Dixons Retail to Offer Award-Winning NOOK® Products

Leading Specialist in Electrical Goods to Offer NOOK Reading Experience and Products to Its Millions of UK Customers Through PC World and Currys Stores and Online This Autumn

New York, New York – September 25, 2012 - Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world’s largest bookseller and leading retailer of content, digital media and educational products, today announced a partnership with Dixons Retail,  owner of the UK’s leading electrical retailers PC World and Currys. The partnership further fortifies Barnes & Noble’s recently announced expansion into the UK and its commitment to offer UK shoppers the best reading experience through its range of award-winning NOOK products.

“We are very excited to work with a company that, just like Barnes & Noble, puts its customers at the forefront of its business,” said Jamie Iannone, President of Digital Products at Barnes & Noble. “We look forward to bringing our highly sought-after line of NOOK reading devices and content to PC World and Currys customers this autumn.”

Currys and PC World will feature Barnes & Noble’s NOOK products in over 600 stores across the country and online (at www.currys.co.uk and www.pcworld.co.uk). They will offer the award-winning NOOK Simple Touch and NOOK Simple Touch with GlowLight.

Dean Kramer, Head Of Category – Computing Hardware, Currys and PC World, said: “It’s vital, as the UK’s leading electrical retailers, that we continually offer  the right mix of products to meet customers’ needs. Portable tablet and eReading technology is becoming ever more popular so we are thrilled to be stocking Barnes & Noble’s stylish, high quality NOOK products; we believe they will be one of the must-have gadgets for Christmas.”

Barnes & Noble’s partnership with Dixons Retail further highlights the bookseller’s commitment to offer the best choice in reading and tablet products, and outstanding customer service for UK consumers. The partnership will expand the expected number of NOOK UK retail outlets to more than 1,600, and include various leading online retail platforms offering NOOK products and the company’s soon to launch online storefront, www.nook.co.uk.

Barnes & Noble is a leader in creating innovative products that provide the best digital reading and entertainment experience for millions of customers today. The company is on track to offer the award-winning NOOK Simple Touch, the lightweight, easiest-to-use Reader with extra-long battery life and a paper-like display, and NOOK Simple Touch with GlowLight, which adds an evenly distributed and adjustable light that’s perfect for reading in the dark.

Both of these critically-acclaimed devices will be available online and to experience first-hand in-store in early October. Commercial terms of the partnership have not been disclosed.

Barnes & Noble primarily conducts its commercial European operations in Luxembourg through its Luxembourg entity Barnes & Noble S.à r.l.

About Barnes & Noble, Inc.
Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE:BKS), the leading retailer of content, digital media and educational products, operates 689 bookstores in 50 states. Barnes & Noble College Booksellers, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Barnes & Noble, also operates 667 college bookstores serving over 4.6 million students and faculty members at colleges and universities across the United States.  Barnes & Noble conducts its online business through BN.com (www.bn.com), one of the Web's largest e-commerce sites, which also features more than 2.5 million titles in its NOOK Bookstore™ (www.bn.com/ebooks) Through Barnes & Noble’s NOOK® eReading product offering, customers can buy and read digital books and content on the widest range of platforms, including NOOK devices, partner company products, and the most popular mobile and computing devices using free NOOK software. Barnes & Noble is proud to be named a J.D. Power and Associated 2012 Customer Service Champion and is only one of 50 U.S. companies so named.  Barnes & Noble.com is ranked the number one online retailer in customer satisfaction in the book, music and video category and a Top 10 online retailer overall in customer satisfaction according to ForeSee E-Retail Satisfaction Index (Spring Top 100 Edition).

General information on Barnes & Noble, Inc. can be obtained via the Internet by visiting the company's corporate website: www.barnesandnobleinc.com.

NOOK®, NOOK Tablet™, NOOK Simple Touch™ with GlowLight™, NOOK Simple Touch™, NOOK Color™, Reader’s Tablet™, Best-Text™ Technology, VividView™, PagePerfect™, NOOK Store™, NOOK Bookstore™, NOOK Book™, NOOK Newsstand™, NOOK Magazine™, NOOK Newspaper™, NOOK Apps™, FREE NOOK Reading Apps™, NOOK Kids™, NOOK Digital Shop™, NOOK Cloud™, NOOK® for Web, Read In Store™, More In Store™, LendMe®, NOOK Books en español™, NOOK Study™, NOOK Library™, Lifetime Library™ and Read What You Love. Anywhere You Like™ are trademarks of Barnes & Noble, Inc. Other trademarks referenced in this release are the property of their respective owners.

Follow Barnes & Noble on Twitter (www.bn.com/twitter), Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/barnesandnoble) and YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/user/bnstudio).

About NOOK® from Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble's NOOK brand of eReading products makes it easy to read what you love, anywhere you like™ with a fun, easy-to-use and immersive digital reading experience. With NOOK, customers gain access to Barnes & Noble's expansive NOOK Store™ of more than 2.5 million digital titles, and the ability to enjoy content across a wide array of popular devices. NOOK Tablet™ is Barnes & Noble’s fastest, lightest tablet with the best in entertainment from top services and everything you want in a tablet at a great value ($179 for NOOK Tablet – 8GB, and $199 for NOOK Tablet – 16GB). Both NOOK Tablet and the award-winning NOOK Color™ ($149) feature a stunning 7-inch VividView™ Color Touchscreen to read all of the content you love, shop popular apps, connect via e-mail, browse the Web and more. NOOK Simple Touch™ ($99) is the fastest, easiest to use reader with the world’s best reading screen and the longest battery life and NOOK Simple Touch with GlowLight™ ($139) features innovative lighting technology that makes it perfect for reading at bedtime and on the beach. Barnes & Noble offers NOOK owners Always Free NOOK Support in any of its nearly 700 bookstores, as well as free Wi-Fi connectivity to enjoy the Read In Store™ feature to read NOOK Books™ for free, and the More In Store™ program, which offers free, exclusive content and special promotions. Barnes & Noble was the first company to offer digital lending for a wide selection of books through its LendMe® technology, available through NOOK eReading products. Find NOOK devices in Barnes & Noble stores and online at www.nook.com, as well as at Best Buy, Walmart, Staples, Target, Radio Shack, Books-A-Million, OfficeMax, Fred Meyer, P.C. Richard & Son stores, Office Depot, Fry’s Electronics, Kmart, hhgregg, Sears and Systemax Inc. retailers.

In addition to NOOK devices, Barnes & Noble makes it easy for customers to enjoy any book, anytime, anywhere with its Free NOOK Reading Apps™, available at www.nook.com/freenookapps. Customers can use Barnes & Noble's free eReading software to access and read books from their personal Barnes & Noble digital library on devices including iPad™, iPhone®, iPod touch®, Android™ smartphones and tablets, PC and Mac®. Lifetime Library™ helps ensure that Barnes & Noble customers will always be able to access their digital libraries on NOOK products and software-enabled devices and BN.com. Barnes & Noble also offers NOOK Study™ (www.nookstudy.com), an innovative study platform and software solution for higher education, NOOK Kids™ (www.nookkids.com), a collection of digital picture and chapter books for children, and NOOK Books en español™ (http://www.barnesandnoble.com/ebooksenespanol), the first-ever Spanish language digital bookstore in the United States.

For more information on NOOK devices and eReading software, updates, new NOOK Book releases, Free Friday™ NOOK Books and more, follow us on www.twitter.com/nookBN and www.facebook.com/nook.

About Dixons Retail (owner of Currys and PC World) Dixons Retail plc is one of Europe's leading specialist electrical retailing and services groups, with retail and e-tail operations in 28 countries. Dixons Retail trades through 1,300 stores and online stores and employs 40,000 people. More than 100 million customers shop with Dixons Retail every year. Dixons’ retail and e-tail brands include PC World and Currys in the UK and Ireland, Elkjøp in the Nordic countries, UniEuro and PC City in Italy, Kotsovolos in Greece, Electro World in central Europe, and Pixmania.com across Europe. KNOWHOW, the UK’s most comprehensive help, support and service infrastructure for electrical and computing products, was launched in the UK in 2011. Dixons also runs a multi-brand business-to-business operation in the UK. For more information about Dixons Retail plc, please visit www.dixonsretail.com

Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains certain forward-looking statements (within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended) and information relating to Barnes & Noble that are based on the beliefs of the management of Barnes & Noble as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to the management of Barnes & Noble.  When used in this communication, the words "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "plan," "will"  and similar expressions, as they relate to Barnes & Noble or the management of Barnes & Noble, identify forward-looking statements.

Such statements reflect the current views of Barnes & Noble with respect to future events, the outcome of which is subject to certain risks, including, among others, the general economic environment and consumer spending patterns, decreased consumer demand for Barnes & Noble's products, low growth or declining sales and net income due to various factors, risk that international expansion will not be successfully achieved or may be achieved later than expected, possible disruptions in Barnes & Noble's computer systems, telephone systems or supply chain, possible risks associated with data privacy, information security and intellectual property, possible work stoppages or increases in labor costs, possible increases in shipping rates or interruptions in shipping service, effects of competition, possible risks that inventory in channels of distribution may be larger than able to be sold, possible risk that returns from consumers or channels of distribution may be greater than estimated, the risk that the expected sales lift from Borders’ store closures is not achieved in whole or part, the risk that digital sales growth is less than expectations and the risk that it does not exceed the rate of investment spend, higher-than-anticipated store closing or relocation costs, higher interest rates, the performance of Barnes & Noble's online, digital and other initiatives, the performance and successful integration of acquired businesses, the success of Barnes & Noble's strategic investments, unanticipated increases in merchandise, component or occupancy costs, unanticipated adverse litigation results or effects,  product and component shortages, the potential adverse impact on the business resulting from the review of a potential separation of the NOOK digital business, the risk that the transactions contemplated by the partnership with Microsoft to form Newco, including with respect to any spin-off, split-off or other disposition by Barnes & Noble of its interest in Newco, are not able to be implemented on the terms contemplated or at all, the risk that the transactions do not achieve the expected benefits for the parties including the risk that Newco’s applications are not commercially successful or that the expected distribution of those applications is not achieved, the risk that the separation of the NOOK digital and College businesses or any subsequent spin-off, split-off or other disposition by Barnes & Noble of its interest in Newco results in adverse impacts on Company or Newco (including as a result of termination of agreements and other adverse impacts), the potential impact on Barnes & Noble’s retail business of the separation,  the potential tax consequences for Barnes & Noble and its shareholders of a subsequent spin-off, split-off or other disposition by Barnes & Noble of its interest in Newco, the risk that the international expansion contemplated by the relationship is not successful, the risk that Newco is not able to perform its obligations under the commercial agreement, including with respect to the development of applications and international expansion, and the consequences thereof,  the costs and disruptions arising out of any such separation of the NOOK digital and College businesses, the risk that Barnes & Noble may not recoup its investments in the NOOK digital business as part of any separation transaction, the risks, difficulties, and uncertainties  that may result from the separation of businesses that were previously co-mingled including necessary ongoing relationships, and potential for adverse customer impacts and other factors which may be outside of Barnes & Noble’s control, including those factors discussed in detail in Item 1A, "Risk Factors," in Barnes & Noble's Annual Report on Form 10-K and Form 10-K/A, and in Barnes & Noble's other filings made hereafter from time to time with the SEC. Our forward looking statements relating to international expansion are also subject to the following risks, among others that may affect the introduction, success and timing of the NOOK e-reader and content in countries outside the United States:  we may not be successful in reaching agreements with international companies, the terms of agreements that we reach may not be advantageous to us, our NOOK device may require technological changes to comply with applicable laws, and marketplace acceptance and other companies have already entered the marketplace with products that have achieved some customer acceptance.

Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results or outcomes may vary materially from those described as anticipated, believed, estimated, expected, intended or planned.  Subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to Barnes & Noble or persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements in this paragraph.

Barnes & Noble undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise after the date of this communication.

No comments:

Post a Comment