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.
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