Barnes & Noble Inc.'s (BKS) fiscal fourth-quarter loss
widened on higher expenses, though the bookseller posted higher
revenue thanks to surging online sales.
The nation's largest bookstore chain said it wouldn't offer an
earnings or sales estimate for its new fiscal year because of the
takeover offer made last month from Liberty Media Holding Corp.
(LCAPA). Liberty's offer valued the chain at $1.02 billion and is
under review by a special committee.
Shares were recently off 4% to $19.30 in premarket trading as
the results missed analysts' expectations. The stock has more than
doubled in the past three months.
Investor focus on Barnes & Noble has spiked recently
following the Liberty Media bid as well as the Chapter 11 filing by
rival Borders Group Inc. (BGPIQ) earlier this year. Liberty
executives have said Barnes & Noble's Nook e-reader device and
the vast network of retail stores it can use to promote it were
catalysts for its offer.
Brick and mortar booksellers such as Barnes & Noble and
Borders have face competition from Internet-only retailers such as
Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN). Still, Barnes & Noble said last year
the Nook was its best-selling product ever. Online sales during the
latest period jumped 54%.
For the quarter ended April 30, Barnes & Noble posted a loss
of $59.4 million, or $1.04 a share, compared with a loss of $32
million, or 58 cents a share, a year earlier. Sales rose 4% to
$1.37 billion.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters estimated a loss of 91
cents a share on $1.4 billion in sales. Barnes & Noble had said
in February it wouldn't issue any forecast for the remainder of the
year, pointing to the Borders bankruptcy and its effect on the
marketplace.
Comparable-store sales slipped 2.9% for the quarter, amid the
Borders liquidation during the period. Sales of college textbooks
rose 3%.
Gross margin was flat at 27.5%.
-By Mia Lamar, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-3207;
mia.lamar@dowjones.com