Books-A-Million, Inc., also known as BAM!, is a bookstore chain in the United States, operating 260 stores in 32 states. Stores range in size from 4,000 to 30,000 square feet and sell books, magazines, manga, collectibles, toys, technology, and gifts. Most Books-A-Million stores feature "Joe Muggs" cafés, a coffee and espresso bar. Stores operate under the names Books-A-Million, Bookland, Books & Company, and 2nd & Charles. The company owns Yogurt Mountain Holding, a frozen yogurt retailer and franchisor with 40 locations, as well as Preferred Growth Properties, which develops and manages commercial real estate investments. It owns and operates American Wholesale Book Company (AWBC), an e-commerce division operating as booksamillion.com; and an internet development and services company, NetCentral, in

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

. In December 2015, the company was acquired by its chairman, Clyde B. Anderson, and his family, for $21 million.

History

Books-A-Million was founded in 1917 in Florence, Alabama, as a newsstand by 14-year old Clyde W. Anderson, who dropped out of school to support his family after his father died. Anderson saw a business opportunity after workers on the nearby Wilson Dam complained that they could not get their hometown newspapers. In 1950, Charles C. Anderson, the founder's son, inherited the store and expanded it into a chain. The company incorporated as Bookland in 1964. By 1980, the company had 50 stores. In 1988, Bookland acquired the Gateway Books retail chain based in

Knoxville, Tennessee Knoxville is a city in Knox County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. It is located on the Tennessee River and had a population of 190,740 at the 2020 United States census. It is the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division ...

. The same year, the company opened its first superstore format store. In 1992, the company changed its name to Books-A-Million, Inc. and became a

public company A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of share capital, stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter (finance), over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) co ...

via an

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...

of 2.6 million shares at a price of $13 per share. In 1998, the company launched its

website A website (also written as a web site) is any web page whose content is identified by a common domain name and is published on at least one web server. Websites are typically dedicated to a particular topic or purpose, such as news, educatio ...

, booksamillion.com. On November 25, 1998, during the

dot-com bubble The dot-com bubble (or dot-com boom) was a stock market bubble that ballooned during the late-1990s and peaked on Friday, March 10, 2000. This period of market growth coincided with the widespread adoption of the World Wide Web and the Interne ...

, the stock price soared from $3 per share to $38.94 on November 27, 1998, and an intra-day high of $47.00 on November 30, 1998, after the company announced an updated website. Two weeks later, the share price was back down to $10. By 2000, the share price had returned to $3. Those days included suspenseful times for day traders, such as when the stock moved up 6 points in 13 minutes. During this time, insiders sold hundreds of thousands of shares. In 1999, the company acquired NetCentral, the designer of its website, and began operating American Wholesale Book Company, a book wholesaler and distributor. In April 2010, the company paid $3 million for a 40% stake in Yogurt Mountain, a frozen yogurt retailer and franchisor. Six months later, the company opened Yogurt Mountain locations in its bookstores. In September 2010, the company launched 2nd & Charles, a trader of used media, with its first store in

Hoover, Alabama Hoover is a city in the Jefferson County, Alabama, Jefferson and Shelby County, Alabama, Shelby counties in north central Alabama, United States. Hoover is the largest suburban city in Alabama and the sixth largest city in Alabama. The populati ...

across from Riverchase Galleria. In December 2015, the company was acquired by its chairman, Clyde B. Anderson, and his family, for $21 million, taking the company private and delisting its shares from the

Nasdaq The Nasdaq Stock Market (; National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the U.S. by volume, and ranked second on the list ...

. In November 2016, the company began to sell self-published books.

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1917 establishments in Alabama 1992 initial public offerings Chain bookstores of the United States Book selling websites Dot-com bubble Companies based in Birmingham, Alabama Florence, Alabama Retail companies established in 1917 American companies established in 1917 2015 mergers and acquisitions

History

See also

References

External links