Barnes & Noble's CEO William Lynch stepped down late Monday afternoon as the lone major American bookstore chain tries to change course and phase out its so-so tablet, the Nook. The company didn't explain the reason for the change, although Lynch has also resigned from its board of directors, effective immediately.
Lynch was promoted to the top post in March 2010 after running B&N's e-commerce division, but the company has spent most of its energy since pushing its Nook tablets and apps, while focusing much less on retail stores. And that has caught up with them.
Nook color tablets had launched in 2011 to hopefully sell more e-books, as bookstore sales were declining. But it was never competitive with Apple's iPad and Amazon's Kindle Fire. In the fiscal fourth quarter that ended on April 27, the Nook unit's revenue fell 34% to $108 million.
The news follows company founder Leonard Riggio's statement back in February that he wants to buy the retail business (bookstores and bn.com, but nothing connected to the Nook).
A handful of other executive positions changed on Monday. Shares of Barnes & Noble finished Monday mostly flat at $17.66 before dropping 4.6% in after-hours trading.