From the article: “Mr. Daunt proved his book-selling bona fides as the founder of Daunt Books in London and, more recently, as the executive who rescued Waterstones, Britain’s largest bookstore chain. The hedge fund Elliott Advisors took a majority stake in Waterstones in 2018; the next year it bought Barnes & Noble for $683 million and installed Mr. Daunt, a Cambridge-educated Brit, as its leader. (He is still the managing director of Waterstones; the two chains operate separately.)”
This doesn’t surprise me at all. Waterstones have been pushing the “tat” further from the entrance and really are focused on being what bookstores were pre-Amazon.
My local Waterstones is the last surviving dedicated book store in the city and is really a destination as much as anything else. They run a lot of activities in their coffee shop too (book clubs and such).
I was certain covid would have been the final nail in the coffin but their renewed focus really is working - they’re thriving in a way they haven’t been in 20 years.
Exactly - In this case by tat I mean things like Harry Potter drinking flasks, Hunger Games calendars, and vaguely book-related trinkets that can be sold for under £5.
(The kind of high-margin items that you didn’t come to the shop for and most people won’t buy anyway.)
I don't have hard evidence but I suspect this is more common than you think, it's just we only read about the failures or the aggressive raiding stories (because they make juicier stories).
These funds make more money if the company they attempt to turnaround is a success, but the turnaround strategy tends to be high risk as they load the company with debt. So we mostly hear about the failures.
Further, I'd observe that most of the companies getting bought by funds for turnaround are.. in need of a turnaround. So many of them were on the path to failing if left to their own devices anyhow.
That said there are structural legal/tax issues that benefit "corporate raiders" in these these take-private deals.
