Ahead of the Fourth of July summer vacations, bookstore chain Barnes & Noble Inc. (BKS) on Thursday announced a limited-time savings offer on the purchase of its 16GB Nook Tablet.
The company said that customers who purchase a 16GB Nook Tablet will receive a free $30 Barnes & Noble gift card. The offer, valid from Thursday, June 28 to Sunday, July 8, is available at all Barnes & Noble's nearly 700 stores nationwide and online at NOOK.com.
The Nook Tablet features a 7-inch VividView color touchscreen and offers access to digital library, movies, TV shows, music, apps, Web browsing, e-mail and streaming video plus expandable memory for $249. The Nook Book Store offers more than 2.5 million digital titles.
According to Barnes & Noble, customers who purchase a Nook Tablet during this special offer can buy and instantly download their favorite beach reads or outfit their new tablet with exclusive Nook accessories with the free $30 gift card, valid on any Barnes & Noble purchase in-store or online.
Customers taking advantage of the special offer in-store will receive their free $30 gift card immediately with purchase. Online customers will receive their free $30 gift card via a confirmation e-mail within a few days of purchase. Barnes & Noble noted that the offer may not be combined with any other discount or offer.
Barnes & Noble has been seeing strong demand for its Nook ebook readers and continued growth in digital content sales, helping offset a decline in traditional physical book sales.
The company entered the tablet market in November 2011 by unveiling the Nook Tablet, aimed to rival industry leader Apple Inc.'s (AAPL) iPad as well as Amazon.com Inc.'s (AMZN) tablet Kindle Fire.
In January this year, Barnes & Noble said it will explore strategic alternatives for the Nook digital business. The company is looking to spinoff the Nook business into a separate company in order to unlock its value due to the increased significance of the Nook business platform.
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) said in April that it is making a $300 million investment in the newly formed unit of Barnes & Noble that includes the digital and college businesses of Barnes & Noble as well as a new Nook application for Windows 8.
In Thursday's regular session, BKS is trading at $15.40, down $0.54 or 3.39 percent on a volume of 122,555 shares.
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