Barnes and Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BK) has struggled for years in store traffic and sales from competitors such as the Amazon Kindle. In a time of e-books and online purchases, the decline of Barnes and Noble should not come as a surprise. Elliot Management, an investment firm, announced on Friday that they plan on buying the Company for USD 683 Million. The to be Chief Executive Officer of Barnes and Noble, James Daunt, has big plans for the Company. The large activist fund plans to combine Barnes and Noble with its other investment, Waterstones. 

James Daunt, founder of Daunt bookstore chain and managing director of Waterstone, is more than qualified for the work ahead of him. Daunt plans to replicate his success with Waterstones and move Barnes and Noble away from selling physical copies in this digital age. Daunt also wants to open smaller stores, remove unprofitable books, and change the overall look. 

Elliot Management is not the company looking to purchase Barnes and Noble. Readerlink LLC is reportedly working on purchasing Barnes and Noble for a higher bid. 

“Bookstores clearly need to change and the model of a chain bookseller in particular with its rows of books simply doesn’t work anymore. It worked from a practical sense, but I am not sure it worked from a financial sense,” Daunt said, according to Yahoo Finance. “I always think a bookstore with a personality and that reflects the local environment is always going to do better than anything defined by someone sitting in an office somewhere.”