•  
• Tweet
•  
•        Print
•  
•         Track Keywords
•  
• 

Laxman Pai, Opalesque Asia:

The largest activist fund in the world Elliott has completed its $683m acquisition of US book giant Barnes & Noble following approval by the majority of shareholders.

Elliott's acquisition of Barnes & Noble, the largest retail bookseller in the United States, follows its June 2018 acquisition of Waterstones, the largest retail bookseller in the United Kingdom.

Elliott will own both Barnes & Noble and Waterstones and, while each bookseller will operate independently, James Daunt will serve as CEO of both companies and relocate from London to New York.

Waterstones has 293 total bookshops in the UK, Ireland, Brussels, and Amsterdam. According to the company, it is the only national specialist book retailer of scale in the UK.

Barnes & Noble serves 627 different communities across all 50 states, where it remains the #1 bookseller in the United States.

Elliott seeks to build upon this strong foundation as it addresses the significant challenges facing the bricks and mortar book retail space in the United States, applying a model that successfully turned around Waterstones over the past decade.

James Daunt, CEO of Barnes & Noble said, "This is a very good day for bookselling. Barnes & Noble is the greatest of all bookstore names and will now benefit from the support of an owner committed to physical bookselling. With investment and concentration on the core principles of good bookselling, the prospects for this extr......................

To view our full article Click here