Barnes & Noble founder Leonard Riggio agreed to a $29 million settlement of investors’ claims that he wrongfully pushed the biggest US bookstore chain to acquire his college-textbook firm, lawyers said.
Riggio, Barnes & Noble’s chairman, agreed to settle shareholders’ Delaware Chancery Court lawsuits alleging the $596 million buyout of the textbook seller in 2009 was designed to unfairly reward him and amounted to a waste of company assets, attorneys representing company shareholders said.
The settlement, which will be paid personally by Riggio and won’t be covered by insurance covering Barnes & Noble officers and directors the people say, comes less than a week before a judge was slated to hear investors’ claims at a June 18 trial in Wilmington, Del.
Microsoft agreed April 30 to invest $300 million in a new Barnes & Noble unit set up to combine its Nook digital reader with the college-textbook business.
Microsoft will own about 18 percent of the unit, company officials said.
While Barnes & Noble operates about 700 retail locations, its future growth lies in electronic books.
The company started its digital business in 2009 with the Nook and projected the e-reader business may generate as much as $1.5 billion in annual sales.
Barnes & Noble, Leonard Riggio, Delaware Chancery Court
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