On July 30, a federal bankruptcy court approved Barnes & Noble’s acquisition of Tattered Cover, setting the stage for the next chapter in the renowned bookstore’s history. The move marks a swift close for B&N’s $1.83 million acquisition bid for the embattled indie, announced last month, which includes four stores in Denver and will allow Tattered Cover to keep its name and branding and retain a majority of the store’s roughly 70 current employees.
“Tattered Cover today puts the challenging bankruptcy process behind it,” said James Daunt, CEO of Barnes & Noble, in a statement. “The Tattered Cover store managers, supported by their booksellers, now begin the rebuilding of these wonderful bookstores.”
In comments to local media, Daunt reiterated that Tattered Cover will be run independently by its own store managers. “We just have to rebuild Tattered Cover to be a great bookstore,” Daunt told the Denver Gazette, adding that the local store managers and employees will be leading the way forward: “They will be doing it, not us.”
B&N officials said that the transition may briefly affect store hours and service as well as online access through tatteredcover.com, but stressed that the store would be “maintaining its distinct identity.” He added that “all existing commitments,” including the Friends of Tattered Cover benefits and Tattered Cover gift cards, “will be honored.”
One of country’s most storied independent bookstores, Tattered Cover came to national prominence under the leadership of the late First Amendment rights advocate Joyce Meskis, who bought the store in 1974 and sold it in 2017. Meskis died in 2022 after a long, influential career in independent bookselling. The group’s current ownership, Bended Page, filed for bankruptcy protections in October, 2023, with a total of nine parties expressing interest in buying the company before Barnes & Noble stepped up with its winning offer.
Following the deal’s announcement last month, Brad Dempsey, interim CEO of Tattered Cover, said that the move would create the nation's “first true hybrid bookstore,” calling it “a bold and sustainable response to a marketplace that is dramatically different from when Joyce Meskis operated Tattered Cover for so many decades.” In a statement today, Dempsey said he was “very pleased that Tattered Cover emerges from bankruptcy fully supported and recapitalized, preserving its unique identity and able now to rebuild its reputation for bookselling excellence.”
The move to retain Tattered Cover’s branding, while operating under B&N’s umbrella, echoes previous moves Daunt has implemented in the U.K., where he is CEO of the bookselling chain Waterstones—which, like B&N, is owned by Elliott Investment Management. While the acquisition of Tattered Cover is B&N’s first purchase in the U.S., Elliott has acquired several independent bookstore brands in the U.K. and continues to operate them under their existing names, including Blackwell’s, Hatchards, Foyles, and Hodges Figgis, among others.
In a June interview with PW, Daunt invoked the turnaround at Blackwell's when asked what he had planned for Tattered Cover. At Blackwell's, Daunt upgraded the IT systems and recapitalized the store to get it on its feet; sales at the store have grown “dramatically” since the takeover, Daunt said, adding that "store teams run their stores to their own idiosyncrasies while benefiting from the support structures of the wider business, notably in IT and logistics."
B&N, meanwhile, appears to be enjoying its own turnaround. Sales at Barnes & Noble have been growing steadily since the pandemic’s grip on sales at bricks-and-mortar stores began to ease in 2022, Daunt reported earlier this year, adding that his goal for 2024 was to open 50 new stores—and on June 12, B&N opened its 23rd new outlet this year, in Selma, Tex. As a privately-held company, B&N doesn’t release financial information, but earlier this month, a B&N spokesperson told PW that the company is having a good year, and that new store sales are outperforming expectations.
