Liberty Media Corp, which holds a large stake in Barnes & Noble, said on Wednesday it has the power to block a sale of Barnes & Nobles retail stores and it is waiting to see whether the bookseller's chairman Leonard Riggio will make an offer.Liberty Media, controlled by cable pioneer and billionaire John Malone, owns preferred shares, that, if converted, would give it a 17 percent stake of bookseller Barnes & Noble. Its CEO Greg Maffei spoke about Barnes & Noble on a conference call following Liberty's fourth-quarter results.On Monday, Barnes & Noble said its chairman, Leonard Riggio plans to make an offer for the company's bookstores in a deal that would split the stores off from the company's Nook device and e-book business.Maffei, the Liberty CEO, said on a conference call with investors that his company "has a fair amount of rights to influence or block any sale that we don't see as advantageous" and that it is waiting to see if a transaction occurs. Liberty's preferred shares come with voting rights.
Barnes & Noble, Inc. (Barnes & Noble) is a bookseller. Shares of BKS fell by 1.49% or $-0.23/share to $15.23. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $10.45 and as high as $26.00. On average, 1600760 shares of BKS exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 1922833.
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