Barnes & Noble Considers Possible Sale; Share Price Rises

Barnes & Noble, the retailer with headquarters in New York, may find itself up for sale. And the new owner could be the company's executive chairman and founder Leonard Riggio.

Riggio owns approximately 15 percent of the company's stock, with the nonprofit Riggio Foundation owning another 4.3 percent of the stock, USA Today said.

Barnes & Noble has 630 bookstores, according to its website. A spokesperson for the company said there are 38 stores in New York.

News of the bookseller exploring strategic alternatives affected the price of its shares, which were up 21 percent at the end of trading Wednesday, with the stock climbing another 20 percent Thursday, CBS News said.

The stock opened Friday at $6.66 a share.

Barnes & Noble's market value is down 80 percent from an all-time high in 2006 of about $2 billion, fortune.com said.

The company is now valued at around $400 million, having struggled to compete with online giant Amazon.

Photo caption: Barnes & Noble Eastchester, which has a full-service restaurant, opened in Dec. 2016. Photo credit: John Labbe for Barnes & Noble.