Barnes & Noble Plunges After CEO Ouster Brings Fresh Turmoil

  • Founder Leonard Riggio will take over duties during CEO search
  • Retailer says Boire ‘was not a good fit for the organization’

Ronald Boire

Photographer: Yana Paskova/Bloomberg
Lock
This article is for subscribers only.

Barnes & Noble Inc. suffered its worst stock decline in more than eight months after ousting Chief Executive Officer Ron Boire, saying he wasn’t the right person to revamp a bookstore chain struggling to compete with Amazon.com Inc.

Management duties will be handed over to 75-year-old founder Leonard Riggio and other executives while Barnes & Noble searches for a new CEO. As part of the shake-up, Riggio will postpone his retirement as executive chairman, the New York-based company said Bloomberg Terminallate Tuesday. Boire was on the job less than a year.