Business

Malone deal to buy 70% of B&N hits a snag

The storybook bromance between Len Riggio and John Malone just took a cruel plot twist.

Barnes & Noble Chairman Riggio has been in exclusive talks with billionaire media mogul Malone to sell a 70 percent stake that would value the bookseller at $1 billion, but those talks have hit a rough patch, The Post has learned.

It’s not clear whether hard-knuckle negotiations between Riggio and Malone have broken down altogether, according to people close to the talks. Nevertheless, “the Barnes deal looks shaky,” according to a source briefed on the process.

A B&N spokeswoman declined to comment, and Malone didn’t respond to requests for comment.

After hearing of Malone and Riggio’s rocky courtship, at least one private-equity giant this week hired a consulting firm to take a fresh look at B&N’s books in case their deal falls apart, a source said.

That’s a sharp turnabout from last month, when Riggio gushed in a public statement that he “couldn’t think of a better partner than John Malone and a finer group of executives than the team at Liberty,” referring to Malone’s conglomerate Liberty Media, whose properties include Direct TV and Sirius XM.

While Malone likewise had been vocal in his enthusiasm for B&N, a deal failed to materialize last week, which was a preliminary target for a final deal since talks began in May, according to sources.

A key sticking point is likely how to value B&N’s Nook e-reader, sources said. While the gadget has a growing following amid competition with Amazon’s Kindle, B&N has spent heavily on its rollout. With Claire Atkinson