Barnes & Noble Education, Inc. (NYSE: BNED), a
leading solutions provider for the education industry, today
provided updates on its COVID-19 related business disruption, as
well as its ongoing strategic review process.
BNED has experienced an unprecedented and significant impact on
its business as a result of COVID-19 related campus store closures.
The stores pride themselves on being a support system for the
campus communities they serve. The Company remains in close contact
with academic leadership to ensure it is supporting their needs
during this difficult time. While its campus stores are closed, the
Company continues to serve institutions and students through its
campus websites, providing free shipping on all orders and an
expanded digital content offering to provide immediate access to
course materials to students at BNED campuses that have closed due
to COVID-19.
Most importantly, as institutions determine how to conduct their
summer and fall semesters, the Company continues to provide
valuable solutions that supplement its campus bookstores to help
them navigate this time of uncertainty, including the Company’s
virtual store offerings and course material fulfillment
capabilities, its BNC First Day® offering, and its digital
bartleby® offerings to help students continue to excel while
studying remotely. To prepare for the safe reopening of its campus
stores, the Company has developed a comprehensive reentry program
that incorporates social distancing guidelines from the CDC and the
WHO to best promote the safety and well-being of staff and
customers at each of its campus store locations. BNED plans to
reopen its campus stores based on national, state and local
guidelines, as well as the campus policies set by the school
administration.
To mitigate the impact of the business disruption, the Company
has taken steps to significantly reduce costs, including
furloughing the majority of its Retail workforce. The Company is
reviewing its expense and capital spending to prudently manage its
liquidity. While there is no assurance that the Company will
achieve its objectives and plans, management currently believes
that the Company’s financial resources, including ongoing access to
its credit facility, provide sufficient liquidity to alleviate any
near-term need to obtain additional financing to support its
business operations.
The Company plans to provide additional information when it
reports fiscal year 2020 earnings on or about July 9, 2020.
The Company also announced that it continues to be actively
engaged with its strategic review process. There can be no
assurance that the review will result in a transaction or
announcement of any kind. The Company does not currently intend to
comment further on its strategic review process unless and until
the Board has approved a specific course of action or otherwise
determined that further disclosure is appropriate or required by
law.
ABOUT BARNES & NOBLE EDUCATION, INC.
Barnes & Noble Education, Inc. (NYSE: BNED) is a
leading solutions provider for the education industry, driving
affordability, access and achievement at hundreds of academic
institutions nationwide and ensuring millions of students are
equipped for success in the classroom and beyond. Through its
family of brands, BNED offers campus retail services and academic
solutions, a digital direct-to-student learning ecosystem,
wholesale capabilities and more. BNED is a company serving all who
work to elevate their lives through education, supporting students,
faculty and institutions as they make tomorrow a better, more
inclusive and smarter world. For more information, visit
www.bned.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains certain “forward-looking statements”
within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act
of 1995 and information relating to us and our business that are
based on the beliefs of our management as well as assumptions made
by and information currently available to our management. When used
in this communication, the words “anticipate,” “believe,”
“estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “plan,” “will,” “forecasts,”
“projections,” and similar expressions, as they relate to us or our
management, identify forward-looking statements. Moreover, we
operate in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment. New
risks emerge from time to time. It is not possible for our
management to predict all risks, nor can we assess the impact of
all factors on our business or the extent to which any factor, or
combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ
materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements
we may make, including any statements made in regards to our
response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In light of these risks,
uncertainties and assumptions, the future events and trends
discussed in this press release may not occur and actual results
could differ materially and adversely from those anticipated or
implied in the forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect
our current views with respect to future events, the outcome of
which is subject to certain risks, including, among others: risks
associated with COVID-19 and the governmental responses to it,
including its impacts across our businesses on demand and
operations, as well as on the operations of our suppliers and other
business partners, and the effectiveness of our actions taken in
response to these risks; general competitive conditions, including
actions our competitors and content providers may take to grow
their businesses; a decline in college enrollment or decreased
funding available for students; decisions by colleges and
universities to outsource their physical and/or online bookstore
operations or change the operation of their bookstores;
implementation of our digital strategy may not result in the
expected growth in our digital sales and/or profitability; risk
that digital sales growth does not exceed the rate of investment
spend; the performance of our online, digital and other
initiatives, integration of and deployment of, additional products
and services including new digital channels, and enhancements to
higher education digital products, and the inability to achieve the
expected cost savings; the risk of price reduction or change in
format of course materials by publishers, which could negatively
impact revenues and margin; the general economic environment and
consumer spending patterns; decreased consumer demand for our
products, low growth or declining sales; the strategic objectives,
successful integration, anticipated synergies, and/or other
expected potential benefits of various acquisitions may not be
fully realized or may take longer than expected; the integration of
the operations of various acquisitions into our own may also
increase the risk of our internal controls being found ineffective;
changes to purchase or rental terms, payment terms, return
policies, the discount or margin on products or other terms with
our suppliers; our ability to successfully implement our strategic
initiatives including our ability to identify, compete for and
execute upon additional acquisitions and strategic investments;
risks associated with operation or performance of MBS Textbook
Exchange, LLC’s point-of-sales systems that are sold to college
bookstore customers; technological changes; risks associated with
counterfeit and piracy of digital and print materials; our
international operations could result in additional risks; our
ability to attract and retain employees; risks associated with data
privacy, information security and intellectual property; trends and
challenges to our business and in the locations in which we have
stores; non-renewal of managed bookstore, physical and/or online
store contracts and higher-than-anticipated store closings;
disruptions to our information technology systems, infrastructure
and data due to computer malware, viruses, hacking and phishing
attacks, resulting in harm to our business and results of
operations; disruption of or interference with third party web
service providers and our own proprietary technology; work
stoppages or increases in labor costs; possible increases in
shipping rates or interruptions in shipping service; product
shortages, including decreases in the used textbook inventory
supply associated with the implementation of publishers’ digital
offerings and direct to student textbook consignment rental
programs, as well as the risks associated with the impacts that
public health crises may have on the ability of our suppliers to
manufacture or source products, particularly from outside of the
United States; changes in domestic and international laws or
regulations, including U.S. tax reform, changes in tax rates, laws
and regulations, as well as related guidance; enactment of laws or
changes in enforcement practices which may restrict or prohibit our
use of texts, emails, interest based online advertising, recurring
billing or similar marketing and sales activities; the amount of
our indebtedness and ability to comply with covenants applicable to
any future debt financing; our ability to satisfy future capital
and liquidity requirements; our ability to access the credit and
capital markets at the times and in the amounts needed and on
acceptable terms; adverse results from litigation, governmental
investigations, tax-related proceedings, or audits; changes in
accounting standards; and the other risks and uncertainties
detailed in the section titled “Risk Factors” in Part I - Item 1A
in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended April 27,
2019. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties
materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect,
actual results or outcomes may vary materially from those described
as anticipated, believed, estimated, expected, intended or planned.
Subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements attributable
to us or persons acting on our behalf are expressly qualified in
their entirety by the cautionary statements in this paragraph. We
undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any
forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information,
future events or otherwise after the date of this press
release.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200506006027/en/
Media Contact:
Carolyn J. Brown Senior Vice
President Corporate Communications and Public Affairs Barnes &
Noble Education, Inc. (908) 991-2967 cbrown@bned.com
Investor Contact:
Andy Milevoj Vice President
Corporate Finance and Investor Relations Barnes & Noble
Education, Inc. (908) 991-2776 amilevoj@bned.com
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