It doesn’t appear that financier Ron Burkle is going to go quietly or give up his ambition to control the nation’s #1 bookseller Barnes & Noble. In spite of losing a proxy battle for control of the company last fall (see “Riggio Wins B&N Battle”) after his takeover efforts were thwarted by the company’s poison pill, and in spite of the fact that it appears that current Barnes & Noble management looks favorably on Liberty Media’s $1 billion offer to buy the company (see “Liberty Media Offers $1 Billion for Barnes & Noble”) that would virtually mandate that BEO honcho Leonard Riggio remain in place, Burkle’s Yucaipa American Management LLC fund just spent $11.1 million buying another 603,000 shares of Barnes & Noble stock at $18.49.

 

Burkle is paying a price that is 8.8% higher than the $17 per share offer in Liberty Media’s bid, so he would lose money if the deal goes through. This purchase gives Burkle a total of 19.7% of Barnes & Noble’s shares bringing him close to the 20% maximum that he can acquire without triggering the poison pill. According to the Wall St. Journal, Burkle appears to be “engaged in a dangerous game of chicken to force a takeover price for Barnes & Noble even higher.”

 

It’s a potentially dangerous gambit because B&N have been on sale since last summer and hadn’t come even close to finding a buyer until John Malone’s Liberty Media stepped up to the plate. Burkle is banking on the fact that his holdings are now large enough that putting a deal across without his approval will be difficult.