Barnes & Noble Chairman Leonard Riggio wants to buy his company's stores and leave its Nook e-book business as a separate company, CNN Money reported.
When Riggio disclosed his plans in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, he did not name a price. Shares rose 8 percent in early trading, according to CNN Money.
Riggio already has a 30 percent stake in the Barnes & Noble company -- making him its largest shareholder.
Barnes & Noble acknowledged Riggio's interest in a statement, adding that it brought a committee of three independent directors together to evaluate the proposal and oversee any negotiations, The Los Angeles Times reported. The company told the newspaper that it has no timetable for the review.
The company had already considered separating the Nook as a separate company from Barnes & Noble. Last April, CNN Money reported, it announced a deal with Microsoft, in which the software corporation bought a 17.6 percent stake in Nook - and Publisher Pearson bought a 5 percent stake in December.
Combined, these deals value the Nook business at more than $1.7 billion, although Barnes & Noble's stock is worth just less than $800 million, CNN Money reported.
The company reported a weak Christmas season - with sales at its retail stores falling 11 percent, and sales at its Nook unit falling 12/6 percent to just $300 million.
Earlier in February, according to CNN Money, the company warned of rising losses and weak Nook unit sales in the past year, results of which are due Thursday.
Barnes & Noble - as well as other book retailers - have been struggling with competition from Amazon.com, with its own Kindle e-book. Borders, another previously brick-and-mortar bookstore chain, filed for bankruptcy two years ago and went out of business in July 2011.
Barnes & Noble operates 689 bookstores across the country, and a college booksellers location division has 674 locations, The Los Angeles Times reported. Last month, the paper reported, a top company executive said that the company anticipates closing up to a third of its brick-and-mortar bookstores over the next decade.
These shut-downs would leave the chain with 450 to 500 stores, according to a Wall Street Journal report cited by the Los Angeles Times, quoting Mitchell Klipper, chief executive of Barnes & Noble's retail group.
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