Barnes & Noble announced Tuesday that its NOOK segment, which consists of the company’s digital business (including devices, digital content and accessories), had revenues of $108 million for its fourth fiscal quarter and $776 million for the full year.
As expected, the book retailer confirmed that device sales declined during the fourth quarter due to lower selling volume. Digital content sales, however, increased 16.2% for the full year.
Looking ahead, the company plans to significantly reduce losses in the NOOK segment by limiting risks associated with manufacturing.
Going forward, the company intends to continue to design eReading devices and reading platforms, while creating a partnership model for manufacturing in the competitive color tablet market. Thus, the widely popular lines of Simple Touch and Glowlight products will continue to be developed in house, and the company’s tablet line will be co-branded with yet to be announced third party manufacturers of consumer electronics products.
The venerable bookseller reiterated plans to continue building its digital catalog, adding thousands of eBooks every week, and launching new NOOK Apps.
“We are taking big steps to reduce the losses in the NOOK segment, as we move to a partner-centric model in tablets and reduce overhead costs,” says William Lynch, Chief Executive Officer of Barnes & Noble. “We plan to continue to innovate in the single purpose black-and-white eReader category, and the underpinning of our strategy remains the same today as it has since we first entered the digital market, which is to offer customers any digital book, magazine or newspaper, on any device.”
