Its no secret that Barnes & Noble’s hardware division hasn’t performed too spectacularly in recent quarters, in fact the future of this very division is at best uncertain. Business Insider has been tipped off by a source that B&N has actually fired all of its Nook hardware engineering staff. According to the source, the entire staff was laid off last Thursday, following the dismissal of Bill Saperstein in January. Saperstein was the Vice President of Hardware.
When asked for clarification by BI, a spokesperson for the company confirmed that people were laid off without providing the number of people that have been let go. The spokesperson said that Barnes & Noble is not going to “comment specifically on those eliminations,” adding that the company’s aim is to rationalize the Nook business and position it for “future success and value creation.” The company has said multiple times that the size of its Nook business needs to be reduced, and it certainly seems to be going down that road. Even though staff has been laid off, the company says its committed to the Nook business. It remains to be seen if Barnes & Noble’s Nook business ever rises back up again, only time will tell.
Update: Barnes & Noble has reached out to us to clarify that while job cuts have been made across the organization, it hasn’t eliminated its entire hardware engineering team as originally rumored.
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