When Borders announced its exploration of “strategic alternatives” in March, speculation marked Barnes & Noble as a possible suitor. The Wall Street Journal says B&N is taking that speculation seriously — it’s assembled an advisory team to study an acquisition of its brick-and-mortar competitor. From the WSJ:
That Barnes & Noble is contemplating a bid illustrates how competitive book retailing has become … Not only have Amazon and other Web retailers taken a significant portion of the $15 billion consumer book business, but also book sales have shown little real growth in recent years.