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February 25 - March 4, 2010 Edition

Barnes & Noble Third Quarter Profits Drop

NEW YORK, NY/AUTHORLINK NEWS/02/24/10--Barnes & Noble Inc. reported a decline in quarterly profit yesterday. A sharp drop in store sales caused the company performance to fall short of Wall Street expectations.

On total revenues of $2.17 billion, B&N reported a profit of $80.4 million, or $1.38 cents per share, for the third quarter that ended January 30, compared to last year’s profit of $85 million, or $1.42 cents per share.

Analyst had projected $1.34 per share on revenue of $2.16 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Sales for book stores open at least a year dropped 5.5 percent, but sales at its website increased 32 percent to $210 million.

The bookseller acquired Barnes & Noble College Booksellers late last year and launched its Nook e-reader in October. This was the first full reporting quarter since those developments.

The company forecast calls for same-store bookstore sales to fall by 3 percent to 5 percent in fiscal 2010, and for College Bookstore sales to decline 1 percent.

Analysts were expecting a loss of 61 cents a share for the fourth quarter, while B&N predicts a fourth quarter loss of 85 cents to $1.15 a share, and fiscal 2010 earnings of 23-to 53 cents a share.