Barnes & Noble Education, Inc. BNED

Barnes & Noble Education, Inc. ("BNED") is one of the largest contract operators of physical and virtual bookstores for college and university campuses and K-12 institutions across the United States. We are also one of the largest textbook wholesalers and inventory management hardware and software providers. As of May 2, 2026, we operated 1,116 physical and virtual bookstores, delivering essential educational content and general merchandise within a dynamic omnichannel retail environment.

The strengths of our business include our ability to compete by developing new products and solutions to meet market needs, our large operating footprint with direct access to students and faculty, our well-established, deep relationships with academic partners and stable, long-term contracts and our well-recognized brands. We provide product and service offerings designed to address the most pressing issues in higher education, including enhanced convenience and improved affordability through innovative course material delivery models designed to drive improved student experiences and outcomes. We offer our BNC First Day® affordable access course material programs, consisting of First Day Complete and First Day, which provide faculty required course materials on or before the first day of class at below market rates, as compared to the total retail price for the same course materials if purchased separately (a la carte), and students are billed the below market rate directly by the institution as a course charge or included in tuition. These programs have allowed us to reverse historical long-term trends in course materials revenue declines, which has been observed at those schools where such programs have been adopted, and improve predictability of our future results. Many institutions adopted First Day Complete in Fiscal 2026, and we plan to continue to scale the number of schools adopting First Day Complete in Fiscal 2027 and beyond.