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Business Movers

Wondery

History, Business, Entrepreneurship

4.8 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 16 January 2025

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Barnes & Noble’s first e-commerce website, BN.com, launches under the leadership of Stephen and Leonard Riggio. But the company’s attempt to join the digital revolution might be too little, too late.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Want to get more from business movers?
0:02.2	Subscribe to Wondry Plus for early access to new episodes,
0:05.7	ad-free listening, and exclusive content you can't find anywhere else.
0:09.6	Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.
0:14.3	Wonderly.
0:15.0	The Wondry! It's October 1995 in New York City's Central Park.
0:33.7	54-year-old Leonard Riggio sits on a bench tossing bread to the ducks.
0:38.5	Leonard is CEO and chairman of the bookseller Barnes & Noble.
0:42.2	His company is worth around a billion dollars, and Leonard himself is a wealthy man.
0:47.3	Yet in his rare moments of downtime, Leonard finds joy in this simple, free pleasure.
0:52.6	He likes that the ducks don't ask him for more than a few
0:55.2	pieces of stale bread. The sound of an approaching bicycle interrupts his peace, though. He looks
1:01.2	over his shoulder to see his 41-year-old brother, Stephen Riggio, dismounting the bike and then
1:06.0	leaning it against the bench as Leonard greets him. You know, you've done this since we were kids,
1:10.7	just kind of show up
1:11.8	wherever I am. Well, you pay the most attention when I can catch you outside the office.
1:16.6	Stephen takes a seat on the bench and unfolds a copy of the Seattle Times. He begins reading aloud.
1:22.4	There's a big new bookstore in town. Storytime in the park is it. Look, I told you, I don't care if the press thinks were the bad guys.
1:29.5	I haven't finished reading you the rest.
1:31.6	And there's a catch.
1:32.8	You won't find it on any Seattle street map.
1:35.4	So if you want to wander down its aisles and peruse the selection, you'll have to
	...

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