From the WSJ:
Barnes & Noble Inc.'s retail group chief Mitchell Klipper sold about two-thirds of his stock position in the retailer over the past few days, according to a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission late Monday.
In separate sales made between Aug. 22 and Aug. 26, Mr. Klipper sold about 401,000 shares of stock at prices ranging from $14.53 to $13.99, raising in excess of $5 million, the filing showed.
As of the company's recent proxy filing dated July 29, Mr. Klipper owned 622,000 shares, including 107,000 options. His position amounted to about 1% of the 59.7 million shares outstanding. On Tuesday of last week, two days before the first of the share sales, Barnes & Noble said it was no longer considering splitting the company in two, after looking at "strategic alternatives" since January 2012.
The writing has been on the wall for Barnes & Noble but when the Chief ditches this much stock it is a clarion call to world at large that the ship is sinking fast. The real question on my mind is how safe are our B&N eBooks, will they go the way of our DRM music and be relegated to obsolete hardware? Who will support the servers needed for verify my purchases? The thin veneer of reason that covers the contradicting idea of ownership with DRM is cracking again, and unfortunately we consumers are repeating the same mistakes of yesteryear!
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