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Waterstone's founder Tim Waterstone has dismissed as "overstated and overwritten" reports that he is planning to buy back the book chain he founded in 1982 from its current parent HMV. However he has stopped short of ruling it out entirely, telling The Bookseller this morning that "if Simon Fox [HMV chief executive] decided to sell Waterstone's I'd be very interested to look at it".
Newspaper reports over the weekend claimed that Waterstone was considering a "£100m-plus bid" if its parent company does not see positive sales over the Christmas period. The Observer http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/sep/05/waterstone-hmv-book-chain... target="_blank" title="quotes">http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/sep/05/waterstone-hmv-book-chain... sources saying that Waterstone is still keen to regain control and that "it is unthinkable he wouldn't be in the running" if HMV decided to sell. The Observer's report has been repeated elsewhere, withhttp://www.retail-week.com/sectors/entertainment/books/waterstones-found... target="_blank" title="">http://www.retail-week.com/sectors/entertainment/books/waterstones-found... Retail Week headlining its piece, "Waterstone's founder poised to buy back bookseller". However, none of the articles have a direct quote from Waterstone himself.
Waterstone was interviewed in the Guardian on Saturday about his first novel in 10 years – In for a Penny, In for a Pound (Corvus). In the Guardian interview Waterstone was in fact broadly positive about the new management at Watestone's saying "how delighted his is that some of Waterstone's most senior staff ring him up these days to talk over the whys and wherefores of the book trade". And when asked if he would bid again, he said "not", but added that "I'm certainly not going aggresively at them again, under any cicumstances".
In a statement released to The Bookseller this morning, Waterstone clarified his position: "It's hardly a breathtakingly original insight of the gossip mongers that if Simon Fox decided to sell Waterstone's I'd be very interested to look at it of course I would - but, as you can see from Saturday's Guardian piece, I have absolutely no desire at all to return to those days of aggression around Waterstone's between the Alan Giles years of HMV and myself. You will also see from that piece that I believe Waterstone's is now in the excellent hands of leaders (Dominic Myers and Tim Watson) who actually understand the brand, love it, respect it, and know what they are doing. That is quite some shift, and - boy! - is it welcome . . ."
Waterstone founded the chain in 1982, then became the founder chairman of HMV media group in 1998 merging the two companies. He left the group in 2001. The newspaper reported that if HMV chief executive Simon Fox decides to sell then Waterstone would place a bid with funding from backers that include a London-based hedge fund.
An HMV spokesman said: "We have a clear strategy for the turnaround of Waterstone's, focused on reinforcing our credentials as a range bookseller and helping stores reflect the local interest of their customers. Although we are only a few months in with this strategy, we are making very good progress and our initiatives have been very well received by the wider book industry."