Barnes and Noble's troubled Nook tablet and software division is laying off some of its staff members, although the bookseller is denying earlier reports that it is eliminating the hardware portion of its business entirely.
TechCrunch received a statement from Barnes and Noble which said, in part:
As we’ve aligned NOOK’s cost structure with business realities, staffing levels in certain areas of our organization have changed, leading to some job eliminations. We’re not going to comment specifically on those eliminations.
The Nook GlowLight eReader is the latest hardware product from Barnes and Noble
The statement added that the company has recruited new talent to join the Nook management team and that the group is "focused on managing the business efficiently." This rather vague statement offers no clear cut direction on what Barnes and Noble really plans to do with the Nook division, which has performed poorly in the face of bigger competition, including Amazon's Kindle tablet and eReader efforts.
At one point, Barnes and Noble had plans to spin off the Nook tablet business into a separate company, with some help from Microsoft who invested $300 million in that project. However, the spin-off never happened and it looks like it never will, at least according to the plans Barnes and Noble may have had. We have contacted Microsoft to see if they wish to comment on the new Nook division cut backs and if the company is still planning to stick with its sizable investment.
Source: TechCrunch | Image via Barnes and Noble
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