How many times can this dead horse be beaten?

Because I know I’m not the only one to lose count of how many times Tim Waterstone – the founder of the eponymous bookstore chain – gets in the news to say he wants to buy his company back. (It’s seven, for those who still have the ability to count, or care.) And how many times this doesn’t actually happen. So why should this time be any different than the others? Beats the hell out of me, or for that matter, retail analyst Richard Ratner at Seymour Pierce, who said: “Good luck to him. We think HMV should have accepted the 210p offer from Permira. We were amazed that they didn’t get into talks with that. The problem is between HMV and Waterstone’s. They have too many stores. Indeed, with some of HMV’s products they could be better to have some combined stores. I think it could be split quite easily.”

But good ole Tim remains pie-in-the-sky optimistic. “The book market is very different in 2006 from what it was in 1986. But I still believe that if Waterstone’s returned to its core values of selling a high-class literary offering, with passionate staff and good books, it would thrive.” Sure, but the sound of wolves crying get louder, and louder, and louder…

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