Barnes & Noble’s Nook struggles claim another victim: CEO William Lynch

Barnes & Noble’s Nook business is sinking, and CEO William Lynch is abandoning ship.

The company announced Monday night that Lynch is stepping down immediately after three years in the top spot.

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The move is largely unsurprising. When Lynch stepped up in 2010, his job was to help Barnes & Noble navigate the rough transition to the digital world. That was easier said than done, however: While the Nook is well made, it has always struggled against Amazon’s Kindle, which has had both the brand recognition and content ecosystem that Barnes & Noble never quite managed to replicate.

The Nook reached a new low two weeks ago when Barnes & Noble announced that it was killing sales of its color Nook tablets. Instead of making the devices itself, the company plans to partner up with third-party manufacturers (which we took to mean Microsoft).

While Barnes & Noble has not named Lynch’s immediate successor, the company did say that CFO Michael Huseby would become CEO of Nook Media and president of Barnes & Noble.

As far as the company’s other plans go, it says it’s “reviewing its current strategic plan and will provide an update when appropriate.”