By Kevin McCauley
Sitrick and Company is leading Ron Burkle's Yucaipa Companies counterattack on the "scare tactics" deployed by Barnes & Noble directors as they try to fend off Burkle's bid for three seats on the bookseller's nine-member board.
B&N has blasted supermarket magnate Burkle and his board-designees for having "no strategic vision" and "no plan for the future." It contends that Burkle's group is trying to seize control of the New York-based company "on the cheap."
Yucapia says B&N's 1 letter to shareholders is a bid to frighten them with the prospect of Burkle acquiring a 20 percent stake. It asks shareholders to question why the "hand-picked board" of founder/chairman Leonard Riggio thinks it's a "good idea" for the Riggio family to control 33 percent of B&N, but "it is a threat if anyone else owns more than 20 percent."
Yucapia says the "only threat that shareholders should worry about is Leonard Riggio's ever-tightening grip on the company."
B&N's annual meeting is Sept. 28. The company lost $63M on $1.4B in sales for the first-quarter ended July 31.
Despite that deficit, B&N claims it's "in the middle of one of the most exiting transformations in the history of bookselling." It is executing a "digital strategy to spur growth in the rapidly expand e-book market to build long-term value."
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