Waterstones

Waterstones, formerly Waterstone's, is a British book retailer that operates 296 stores and employs around 4,500 staff in the UK and Europe as of January 2012. Established in 1982 by Tim Waterstone, after whom the company was named, the bookseller expanded rapidly until being sold in 1993 to W H Smith. Bought again in 1998 by EMI, Advent International and Waterstone, the company was taken under the umbrella of HMV Group, which merged the Dillons, and in 2006, the Ottakar's brands into the company. Following several poor sets of results for the group, HMV put the chain up for sale and in May 2010, it was announced that A&NN Capital Fund Management, owned by Russian billionaire Alexander Mamut, had bought the chain and appointed James Daunt as managing director.