Barnes & Noble stops selling the Nook in the UK

Barnes & Noble is to stop selling Nook digital book readers in the UK as it can’t compete with Amazon’s Kindle device and its e-books.

Along with withdrawing its readers, B&N will no longer run a UK e-book download portal or support its Android app on its Nook devices here.

The news came after the New York headquartered book company posted it third quarter financial results, which showed that the Nook service had again lost the company millions of dollars. The service will however continue in the US.

The announcement came last night, ironically, on World Book Day. The Nook service for UK users will end on 15 March, and after that date they will have to consider buying a Kindle or some other niche device.

B&N says it has signed an agreement with supermarket chain Sainsbury’s to enable customers to access online books they have already paid for – up to the end of May. They will receive an email telling them how to access their content.

The Nook service was launched in the UK in 2012. In its third quarter results this week, B&N said global NOOK sales were only $51.7 million, a decrease of 33.3 percent year on year, “due primarily to lower device and content sales”, said the company.

NOOK EBITDA losses of $11.2 million declined $17.9 million versus the prior year, “as the company continues to focus on cost rationalisation efforts”, said the firm.

@AntonySavvas