Barnes & Noble has released its financial results for the 2013 fiscal year and the numbers are less than stellar. The report paints a pretty bleak picture for the struggling book retailer and in particular, its beleaguered Nook tablet.
The company lost $118.6 million just in Q3 of 2013 and its net losses for the fiscal year totaled nearly $155 million. Barnes & Noble said that a shortage of high-profile titles like The Hunger Games contributed to an overall decrease in revenues, but indicated that its ebook business was also becoming a growing liability.
Nook sales (which include revenues from Nook tablets and e-readers, as well as digital content) dropped by 34 percent compared to Q4 2012 and the company announced that it would be undertaking some fairly drastic measures to get its digital business out of the red.
"We are taking big steps to reduce the losses in the NOOK segment, as we move to a partner-centric model in tablets and reduce overhead costs," said William Lynch, chief executive officer of Barnes & Noble in a press statement.
While Barnes & Noble said it still intends to design future Nook tablets and will continue to support existing models, new iterations of the device will be manufactured and co-branded by a third-party.
The company said a partnership model would help minimize manufacturing risks and allow it to focus more attention on its core goal of building a robust and universal online catalog.
"We plan to continue to innovate in the single purpose black-and-white eReader category, and the underpinning of our strategy remains the same today as it has since we first entered the digital market, which is to offer customers any digital book, magazine or newspaper, on any device," Lynch said.
The company hasn't revealed yet whom it would partner with on future Nook tablets. Barnes & Noble will issue its next fiscal report for Q1 of 2014 on August 20.
