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Aug 20 – 27, 2009 Edition BN College Acquisition Deal Rankles Investors
NEW YORK, NY (AUTHORLINK NEWS, August 17, 2009)– The world-leading financial services company, Credit Suisse Group, downgraded Barnes & Noble stocks last Friday after the bookseller announced it had acquired privately-held Barnes & Noble College Booksellers.
We are downgrading Barnes & Noble (ticker: BKS) to underperform as we believe the recently announced acquisition of Barnes & Noble College Booksellers significantly raises the risk profile and takes away the free cash that could have been used for a special dividend, Credit Suisse said. Barnes & Noble will be acquiring the 624 College stores for $596 million, or $460 million.
As part of the acquisition, B&N also announced it has received commitment letters on a new $1 billion, four-year revolving credit facility, which will replace each of B&N’s and College’s existing credit facilities. B&N will finance the transaction through $250 million of seller financing, with the remainder coming from the new credit facility and cash on hand.
College serves nearly 4 million students and over 250,000 faculty members at colleges and universities across the United States.
