Barnes Noble

Amazon.com's Kindle Fire has drawn a lot of media and consumer attention as the latest, and perhaps the first legitimate, contender to the iPad. But Barnes & Noble Inc. argues that Amazon is just following its lead. Nearly a year ago, the bookseller rolled out the Nook Color, a 7-inch device that it asserts is the second bestselling tablet behind Apple Inc.'s iPad. Now Barnes & Noble is trying to fend off Amazon with the $249 Nook Tablet, which looks the same as the $199 Nook Color but has a horsepower boost that makes it a more polished product worth considering for those who don't want to, or can't, spend $499 on an iPad.

The iPad, the heavyweight champ of the tablet world, has summarily knocked out every challenger it has faced since it debuted last year. The defeated include tablets with names including Xoom, PlayBook, TouchPad, G-Slate and Streak, none of which has grabbed more than a tiny sliver of the $10-billion tablet market over which the iPad reigns. But now a pair of new lighter-weight contenders are aiming to hit Apple Inc. where it hurts: the price tag. Amazon.com Inc.'s $199 Kindle Fire and the $249 Nook Tablet from Barnes & Noble Inc. retail for less than half the cost of the lowest-priced iPad and are undercutting the prices of nearly every brand-name tablet on the market.

It isn't the cozy Shop Around the Corner — the indie bookstore of "You've Got Mail" movie fame — but it is the multilevel behemoth on the corner of Westwood and Pico boulevards that shoppers have browsed since 1995. And, now that Barnes & Noble has confirmed the unprofitable store's closing at year-end, lovers of things literary are bemoaning the demise of yet another Westside book merchant. "We're terribly distressed. We're devastated," said Teri Geske of Cheviot Hills, who one recent evening was checking out J.R.R.

Barnes & Noble Inc. has unveiled its Nook Tablet, the bookseller's answer to rival Amazon.com Inc.'s Kindle Fire tablet. The Nook Tablet is now available for preorder and will be shipped to Barnes & Noble stores and other retailers (Target, Staples, Wal-Mart, Office Max and others) late next week at a price of $249 — about $50 more than the Kindle Fire. Barnes & Noble Chief Executive William Lynch said Monday that for the extra $50, the Nook Tablet will offer beefier specifications that will add up to a faster, smoother experience when reading books, playing games or watching movies.

DC Comics' effort to expand digital distribution of its graphic novels has ignited a nasty battle between two bookselling giants. Barnes & Noble Inc. said Friday that its stores will not stock hard copies of 100 DC books that the Warner Bros.-owned unit is making available exclusively on Amazon.com's Kindle platform — a direct competitor of Barnes & Noble's Nook e-reader. Beginning with the launch of the Kindle Fire tablet Nov. 15, Amazon will have exclusive digital distribution rights for four months to books that include "Watchmen" and graphic novels featuring Batman and Superman.

Flip back in time to downtown Los Angeles nearly five years ago — before tiny dogs were everywhere and fancy strollers anywhere, before you could walk 10 minutes south of City Hall and find cafe after cafe serving lattes. Picture living in a loft on a quite lonely stretch of Main Street on the edge of skid row, short on the necessities that most residential areas take for granted. Then imagine one day finding a new store full of crisp hardcovers. "I thought, 'Oh my God, we're civilized,' " said Jacqualine Mills-Lord, a writer who shed tears of joy at the sight of Metropolis Books.

Apparently, “diet” is one of the most incendiary four-letter words in the English language. Just consider the case of “Maggie Goes on a Diet,” a forthcoming book about an overweight 14-year-old. As the book opens, Maggie is called “fatty” and “chubby” by kids at school. So she decided to do something about it. She didn't starve herself but switched to eating foods that were “healthy and nutritious” and cut way back on junk food, allowing herself a single “normal-sized treat” once a week.

Barnes & Noble Inc. announced late Thursday that it had received a buyout proposal from Liberty Media Corp. in a deal valuing the bookseller at about $1 billion. Liberty, based in Englewood, Colo., owns interests in numerous media, retail and other companies, including the Starz and QVC cable channels, the Expedia and Evite websites and the Atlanta Braves baseball team. The company offered $17 a share in cash for Barnes & Noble, a 20% premium over the bookseller's closing stock price of $14.11 on Thursday.

Barnes & Noble Inc. is set to announce a new e-reader May 24, according to a regulatory filing from the company. "In a meeting with investor analysts on May 4, 2011, Barnes & Noble Inc. ... indicated it expects to make an announcement on May 24, 2011, regarding the launch of a new e-reader device," Barnes & Noble said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The bookseller and e-reader maker didn't say what the new device would be called, cost or look like.

NEW YORK ? Book seller Barnes & Noble's third-quarter revenue rose, but its net income fell 25 despite higher revenue as it continued to invest in its online operations and Nook e-readers, the company said Tuesday. Barnes & Noble also said it was suspending its quarterly dividend, and it doesn't plan to forecast its fourth-quarter or full-year earnings due to the effect of last week's bankruptcy filing by Borders Group. The company said its quarterly net income rose to $60.6 million, or $1 per share, from $80.4 million, or $1.38 per share.