Jonathan Shar, who joined Barnes & Noble Education in 2018 as president of its college group and EVP of it retail operations, has been promoted to CEO. He succeeds longtime CEO Michael Huseby, who resigned.
The change of the guard in the CEO position comes a day after the struggling company completed a refinancing that strengthens its financial position by providing an infusion of more than $100 million in new funding. The refinancing was led by Immersion Corp., which is now B&NE’s largest shareholder. Immersion has no previous experience in the college store business, and describes itself as a technology company whose products "allow people to use their sense of touch more fully as they engage with products and experience the digital world around them."
Coinciding with the completion of the refinancing package, Eric Singer, CEO and chairman of Immersion, was appointed to the B&NE board, as was Immersion chief strategy officer William C. Martin, who was also named B&NE chairman. Three other new directors were elected, two were reelected, and seven previous board members resigned, including Huseby. As part of the refinancing package, Huseby amended his employment agreement to decrease his severance payout to $750,000; he will also receive another $750,000 for consulting services.
Prior to joining B&NE, Shar was chief marketing officer at Akademos, Inc., an e-commerce and digital marketing company providing online bookstore services. He also spent nearly five years as general manager of Nook digital content at Barnes & Noble. He will report to Martin. In a prepared statement, Shar said it was a “pivotal and exciting time” for B&NE.
The final piece of the refinancing package went into effect today when B&NE completed a reverse stock split, which consolidates the number of a company’s existing shares. In the case of B&NE, 100 existing shares were converted into one share of new stock. The move was made in part to keep B&NE listed on the New York Stock Exchange, which requires that companies have a minimum share price of $1 per share. The last time B&NE’s shares were selling for $1 was January 17; shares were selling at 9 cents per share when the market closed June 11. With fewer shares now available, the price per share is expected to jump.
