Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN), Apple Inc. (AAPL) – Barnes & Noble, Inc. (BKS): A Face Even Its Founder Can’t Love

Then again, to Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE:BKS)’s credit, this week it did make an effort to piggyback off Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s and Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)’s success by making Nook Video compatible with iOS and Android, but I can’t imagine that move will be a game changer for the struggling company.

Riggio backs down
Next, remember Barnes & Noble’s retail segment, which had increasingly represented one sliver of hope for the company’s sustained long-term profitability?

Well, revenue there continued to fall, this time by 9.9% over last year to $1.0 billion, driven largely by a 9.1% comparable-store sales decrease for the quarter. Core comparable sales, which exclude sales of Nook products, decreased 7.2%.

Worse yet, the company also said founder and chairman Leonard Riggio just told its board of directors he has suspended his efforts to make an offer for the company’s retail business — effectively negating my speculation that their management shakeup last month was in preparation to take the retail operations private.

However, Riggio did note he reserves “the right to pursue an offer in the future,” but for now has decided “it is in the company’s best interests to focus on the business at hand.”

But can you blame him? After all, why would he want to buy a still-declining retail business now, while its operations are smack dab in the middle of a viscous downward spiral? For now, anyway, Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE:BKS) simply needs to stop the bleeding.

Unfortunately, with each passing quarter becoming more painful, that seems an increasingly insurmountable challenge for Barnes & Noble to overcome.

The article Barnes & Noble: A Face Even Its Founder Can’t Love originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Steve Symington.

Fool contributor Steve Symington owns shares of Apple. The Motley Fool recommends Amazon.com and Apple. The Motley Fool owns shares of Amazon.com and Apple.

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