As Barnes & Noble woes continue, retail chief cashes out large portion of stock

Mitchell Klipper, CEO of Barnes & Noble’s retail division, has offloaded a large chunk of his shares in the struggling company. As reported by The Wall Street Journal, Klipper very recently sold off around 400,000 shares — roughly two-thirds of his holdings in B&N — earning himself a payday of over $5 million in the process. The move follows yet another disappointing financial quarter for the bookseller. After an internal review, Barnes & Noble last week announced that it had decided not to separate its underperforming Nook business from its retail operations. Senior executives were barred from selling stock during that review period, a restriction that has since been lifted.

The company also waffled on the idea of outsourcing all Nook hardware production to third parties. “If we want to be in the content business, we need to be in the device business, no matter how they’re produced,” said Barnes & Noble president Mike Huseby during an investor call. “We think our people can produce better devices than anyone else.” But demand for those devices has dwindled as consumers flock to other hardware from Apple, Amazon, and Google. Retail head Klipper still owns stock in the company, but clearly he opted to cash out a good portion before the outlook grows even more grim.