#14 Barnes & Noble
- Ticker: BKS
- YTD stock performance: -4%
- Fortune 500 rank: 360
Barnes & Noble (BKS) continues to face trouble transitioning from its traditional roots as a retailer of printed books to the digital media age.
Shares plummeted 17% in late June when the company revealed steep losses for its e-reader Nook HD tablet, which failed to deliver against competitors such as Amazon's (AMZN) Kindle and Apple's (AAPL)iPad.
Former CEO William Lynch stepped down in July after his initiative to boost the company's tablet business fizzled. And the stock sank another 12% in August after Barnes & Noble reported another quarter of losses and the news that Leonard Riggio, Barnes & Noble's chairman and largest shareholder, had dropped his bid to buy the company's brick and mortar bookstores.
It's possible that the worst is over though. Barnes & Noble eked out a profit for the quarter ending October 26th, even though revenues declined 8% compared to the same period in 2012. --J.S.
