NOOK Simple Touch e-Reader® and NOOK Color® Tablet by Barnes & Noble to be Available at Sears and Kmart Stores Nationwide

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill., Nov. 14, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the leading retailer of content, digital media and educational products, and Sears Holdings (NASDAQ: SHLD), the nation's fourth largest broadline retailer, announced today they will be bringing Barnes & Noble's award-winning line of NOOK e-Readers and related accessories to all Sears and Kmart stores nationwide and online at Sears.com and Kmart.com, beginning today.  Customers visiting a Sears or Kmart store will now have access to a wide array of popular and innovative NOOK devices designed for readers of all ages.  

"The addition of NOOK is an important move that will benefit Sears and Kmart customers as they head into the holiday shopping season," said Allen Ravas, SVP and president, Consumer Electronics for Sears Holdings. "The availability of NOOK devices is one more reason to shop our 2,200 Sears and Kmart stores and our websites."

NOOK devices are the perfect choice for anyone who wants access to their favorite reads anywhere they go.  Customers seeking a simple, easy-to-use, dedicated reading experience will love the NOOK Simple Touch Reader -- an ultra-light, portable six-inch e-Readers with the most-advanced E Ink® Pearl display and the longest battery life of any e-Reader – all for just $99.99.  With a simple tap, it's intuitive and easy to navigate, shop and read.

For customers who love to read everything in rich color, the NOOK Color tablet features a stunning seven-inch VividView™ Color Touchscreen ideal for reading a wide variety of content including books, enhanced books, immersive children's picture books, an expansive collection of interactive magazines, newspapers and more. The best value tablet at just $199.99, NOOK Color also offers the most-requested tablet features, including high-quality NOOK Apps™, built-in email, and an enhanced Web experience. With all NOOK products, customers gain access to shop Barnes & Noble's expansive NOOK Bookstore™ of more than two million digital titles, and the ability to enjoy content across a wide array of popular devices.

"Sears Holdings is the leading home appliance retailer as well as a leader in consumer electronics, offering consumers the most trusted and preferred brands in the U.S.," said Chris Peifer, vice president, Digital Business Development at Barnes & Noble. "That's why we are excited to work with them to bring our NOOK devices to Sears and Kmart customers who love to read anytime, anywhere. With NOOK, customers will discover the most immersive, fun and easy-to-use reading experience, as well as gain access to a vast selection of popular books, interactive magazines, newspapers, children's books, apps and more."

For more information, visit www.bn.com/nook or visit any NOOK Boutique or display in one of Barnes & Noble's more than 700 bookstores.

About NOOK® from Barnes & Noble

Barnes & Noble's NOOK brand of eReading products makes it easy to read what you love, anywhere you like™ with a fun, easy-to-use and immersive digital reading experience. With NOOK, customers gain access to Barnes & Noble's expansive NOOK Store™ of more than 2.5 million digital titles, and the ability to enjoy content across a wide array of popular devices. The new NOOK Tablet™ is Barnes & Noble's fastest, lightest tablet with the best in HD entertainment from top services and everything you want in a tablet at a great value ($249).  Both NOOK Tablet and the award-winning NOOK Color™ ($199) feature a stunning 7-inch VividView™ Color Touchscreen to read all of the content you love, shop popular apps, connect via email, browse the Web and more. The NOOK Simple Touch™ ($99), is the fastest, easiest to use reader with the world's best reading screen and the longest battery life. Barnes & Noble offers NOOK owners Always Free NOOK Support in any of its more than 700 bookstores, as well as free Wi-Fi® connectivity to enjoy the Read In Store™ feature to read NOOK Books™ for free, and the More In Store™ program, which offers free, exclusive content and special promotions. Barnes & Noble was the first company to offer digital lending for a wide selection of books through its LendMe® technology, available through NOOK eReading products. Find NOOK devices in Barnes & Noble stores and online at www.BN.com, as well as at Best Buy, Walmart, Staples, Target, Radio Shack, Books-A-Million, OfficeMax, Fred Meyer, P.C. Richard & Son stores, Fry's Electronics and Systemax Inc. retailers.

In addition to NOOK devices, Barnes & Noble makes it easy for customers to enjoy any book, anytime, anywhere with its FREE NOOK Reading Apps™, available at www.nook.com/freenookapps. Customers can use Barnes & Noble's free eReading software to access and read books from their personal Barnes & Noble digital library on devices including iPad™, iPhone®, iPod touch®, Android™ smartphones and tablets, PC and Mac®. Lifetime Library™ helps ensure that Barnes & Noble customers will always be able to access their digital libraries on NOOK products and software-enabled devices and BN.com. Barnes & Noble also offers NOOK Study™ (www.nookstudy.com), an innovative study platform and software solution for higher education, NOOK Kids™ (www.nookkids.com), a collection of digital picture and chapter books for children, and NOOK Books en espanol™ (http://www.barnesandnoble.com/ebooksenespanol), the first-ever Spanish language digital bookstore in the United States.

For more information on NOOK devices and eReading software, updates, new NOOK Book releases, Free Friday™ NOOK Books and more, follow us on www.twitter.com/nookBN and www.facebook.com/nookBN.

About Barnes & Noble, Inc.

Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE:BKS), the world's largest bookseller and a Fortune 500 company, operates 704 bookstores in 50 states. Barnes & Noble College Booksellers, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Barnes & Noble, also operates 635 college bookstores serving over 4.6 million students and faculty members at colleges and universities across the United States.  Barnes & Noble conducts its online business through BN.com (www.bn.com), one of the Web's largest e-commerce sites, which also features more than two million titles in its NOOK Bookstore™ (www.bn.com/ebooks). Through Barnes & Noble's NOOK™ eReading product offering, customers can buy and read digital books and content on the widest range of platforms, including NOOK devices, partner company products, and the most popular mobile and computing devices using free NOOK software.

General information on Barnes & Noble, Inc. can be obtained via the Internet by visiting the company's corporate website: www.barnesandnobleinc.com.

About Sears Holdings Corporation

Sears Holdings Corporation is the nation's fourth largest broadline retailer with over 4,000 full-line and specialty retail stores in the United States and Canada.  Sears Holdings is the leading home appliance retailer as well as a leader in tools, lawn and garden, consumer electronics and automotive repair and maintenance.  Sears Holdings is the 2011 ENERGY STAR® Retail Partner of the Year.  Key proprietary brands include Kenmore, Craftsman and DieHard, and a broad apparel offering, including such well-known labels as Lands' End, Jaclyn Smith and Joe Boxer, as well as the Apostrophe and Covington brands.  It also has the Country Living collection, which is offered by Sears and Kmart.  We are the nation's largest provider of home services, with more than 11 million service calls made annually.  Sears Holdings Corporation operates through its subsidiaries, including Sears, Roebuck and Co. and Kmart Corporation.  For more information, visit Sears Holdings' website at www.searsholdings.com. Twitter: @searsholdings | Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SHCCareers

SOURCE Sears Holdings Corporation