BNED

History

In February 2015, Barnes & Noble had announced plans to spin off its college bookstore assets and create a separate company called Barnes & Noble Education. On August 3, 2015, Barnes & Noble Education, Inc. began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol, "BNED". The company operates stores dedicated to selling college textbooks, both on and off campus.

In June 2016, Barnes & Noble Education completed the acquisition of Promoversity, a custom merchandise supplier and e-commerce business that works with the collegiate bookstore business and its customers.

In February 2017, Barnes & Noble Education had acquired MBS Textbook Exchange, a major textbook distributor based in Columbia, Missouri, for $174.2 million in cash.

By December 2018, Barnes & Noble Education had operated or managed 773 campus bookstores under contracts. Two years later, Barnes & Noble Education operated 760 campus bookstores and school-branded e-commerce sites through its Barnes & Noble College Booksellers division at the end of 2020.

In July 2019, BNED revealed that the company had turned down several offers by California-based Bay Capital Finance to take over the company citing that the offers by Bay Capital were "substantially undervalued BNED, were highly conditional and not credible." Unlike its former parent company, BNED was diversifying its business by the acquisition of many digital services companies to increase the number of services offered by its Digital Student Solutions division during its past four years as an independent company.

In January 2020, a class-action antitrust lawsuit was filed against BNED, along with rival Follett as well as college textbook companies Cengage, McGraw-Hill Education, and Pearson, alleging that so-called "inclusive access" programs, which involve automatically billing students for course materials, constituted a conspiracy of which the "end goal and result is eliminating competitors and raising prices." In June 2021, the case was dismissed by District Judge Denise Cote.

Digital Student Solutions division

In March 2016, Barnes & Noble Education enlarged their Digital Student Solutions online services division by acquiring LoudCloud Systems, a digital platform and analytics provider to clients in higher education, the for-profit sector, and K-12 segment.

In August 2017, Barnes & Noble Education acquired Student Brands for $58.5 million.

In August 2018, Barnes & Noble Education acquired PaperRater, a service that helps students write papers and identify plagiarism.

References

References

1. (July 31, 2023). "Barnes & Noble Education, Inc. 2023 Annual Report (Form 10-K)". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
2. (2019-03-10). "About {{!}} Barnes and Noble Education".
3. "College Stores Adapt to Change". Publishers Weekly.
4. (December 28, 2020). "Barnes & Noble Education CFO Eyes More Cuts as Campuses Remain Closed". Dow Jones & Company.
5. (February 26, 2015). "B&N Will Separate College from Trade, Nook Units". Publishers Weekly.
6. Rosen, Judith. (February 23, 2018). "Rethinking College Stores". [[Publishers Weekly]].
7. Schwenk, Katya. (2025-09-10). "How Wall Street Broke The College Bookstore".
8. Ryan, Sue. (June 28, 2021). "Notre Dame partners with Barnes & Noble College to manage bookstore properties". [[University of Notre Dame]].
9. Misiaszek, McKenzie. (May 28, 2019). "Follett replaces Barnes & Noble as bookstore provider". [[The Cougar (newspaper).
10. Kell, John. (February 26, 2015). "Barnes & Noble is spinning off its college store business".
11. Schaffler, Rhonda. (August 3, 2015). "Barnes and Noble Education Spins Off, Looks for Growth in Digital Textbooks, Colleges: Barnes and Noble Education rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange after spinning off from Barnes and Noble, and will have its own board and management team.".
12. McCoy, Kevin. (August 30, 2017). "Barnes & Noble Education shares plunge on earnings miss". [[USA Today]].
13. (January 6, 2014). "Barnes & Noble closes the book on Fifth Avenue Store". [[Crain's New York]].
14. Menapace, Brendan. (June 24, 2016). "Acquires Promoversity". Promo Marketing Magazine.
15. Lima, Beatriz Costa. (March 1, 2017). "Barnes and Noble Education Buys MBS Textbook Exchange".
16. . (February 28, 2017). ["Barnes & Noble Education Acquires MBS for $174.2 Million"](https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170228005977/en/Barnes-Noble-Education-Acquires-MBS-174.2-Million). *[[Business Wire]]*.
17. . (December 4, 2018). ["Barnes & Noble Education Reports Second Quarter Fiscal Year 2019 Financial Results"](https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181204005215/en/Barnes-Noble-Education-Reports-Quarter-Fiscal-Year). *[[Business Wire]]*.
18. Duffer, Ellen. (July 28, 2019). "Barnes & Noble Education Declines Acquisition Offer".
19. McKenzie, Lindsay. "A Legal Challenge for Inclusive Access".
20. Burke, Lilah. "A Legal Win for Textbook Publishers".
21. . (March 8, 2016). ["Barnes & Noble Education, Inc. Announces the Acquisition of LoudCloud Systems"](https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160308005868/en/Barnes-Noble-Education-Announces-Acquisition-LoudCloud-Systems). *[[Business Wire]]*.
22. Milliot, Jim. (August 7, 2017). "B&N Education Buys Student Brands for $58.5 Million". [[Publishers Weekly]].
23. . (August 22, 2018). ["Barnes & Noble Education Acquires PaperRater.com"](https://www.marketwatch.com/press-release/barnes-noble-education-acquires-paperratercom-2018-08-22).