Barnes & Noble names Nook chief Michael Huseby as CEO

Bookseller Barnes & Noble Inc. has tapped Michael P. Huseby, head of its Nook digital division, to be chief executive of the entire company.

Huseby, a Chicago native who was also elected to serve on the New York retailer’s board, will immediately step into his new role leading all of Barnes & Noble’s businesses.

He succeeds William Lynch, who in July stepped down as a director and CEO of the company amid disclosures that many of its financial statements contained errors.

That’s when Huseby was appointed chief executive of the Nook Media e-reader group while also being promoted to the Barnes & Noble presidency. He joined the company as its chief financial officer in 2012 after executive stints at Cablevision Systems Corp. and AT&T Broadband.

In late Wednesday morning trading on Wall Street, Barnes & Noble stock rose less than 1 percent, or 12 cents a share, to $14.87.

Huseby has a degree in business administration from the Leeds School at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Mitchel Klipper, chief executive of the Barnes & Noble retail group, will report to Huseby, as will Max J. Roberts, head of the retailer’s college unit.

“Although a relative newcomer to the retail book business, he has quickly developed a comprehensive understanding of the unique opportunities and challenges the Company faces, and he has a vision for the future in which I am in complete accord,” Barnes & Noble Chairman Leonard Riggio said in a statement.

Riggio said last summer that he would not act on earlier indications that he would try to buy out the company. A few months prior, Barnes & Noble said it would stop producing the Nook color tablet and would instead lean on third-party manufacturers to make e-readers.

Also, an investor sued the company, accusing it of poor financial reporting, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation disclosed in December.

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