At its annual meeting held June 11 in New York, Barnes & Noble chairman Len Riggio told shareholders that despite the "disturbing economy" he was optimistic that the company would out-perform the retail segment in the current year. Riggio was particularly upbeat about the prospects for B&N's video game subsidiary, Babbage's; earlier in the meeting, Maureen O'Connell, B&N CFO, said the company expects the video game business to be bigger than the book business by 2004.
The few shareholder questions were mostly about Barnes & Noble.com. Riggio said that the e-retailer "has pretty much stopped the bleeding" and predicted that the company would become profitable in 2003, if not sooner. He said that in addition to serving as a sales vehicle, BN.com acts as a broadcast channel for the bricks-and-mortar stores and maintained his position that BN.com doesn't cannibalize retail sales, but enhances them. Riggio anticipates being in the dot-com business "for a long, long time."
