Barnes Noble

Barnes & Noble Inc. said its profit slipped 2% for its fiscal fourth-quarter to $68.4 million, or 95 cents a share, a penny less than analyst forecasts, as losses from its Internet business offset higher sales at its namesake bookstores. The results for the three months ended Jan. 30 exclude a gain of $37.6 million, or 52 cents a share, from the purchase by German media conglomerate Bertelsmann of a 50% stake in barnesandnoble.com. Barnesandnoble.com contributed an operating loss of $14.

Shares of bookseller Barnes & Noble Inc. rose 18% in late U.S. trading after Los Angeles billionaire Ron Burkle, its largest outside shareholder, asked the company to waive a provision preventing unwanted takeovers and let him acquire as much as 37% of the shares. In a letter to the board of directors Thursday, Burkle asked the company to clarify whether the shares owned by the founding Riggio family were excluded from the takeover provision. The letter was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission after the close of regular trading in New York, when the shares had risen 52 cents to $18.

Barnes & Noble Inc.'s shareholders voted to keep Chairman Leonard Riggio on the board of the company he founded, rejecting an attempt at his ouster by Ron Burkle's Yucaipa Cos. to shake up the largest U.S. bookstore chain. Riggio, the biggest shareholder, was re-elected to the nine-member board with less than 50 percent of votes cast, Yucaipa said in a statement. The slate from Yucaipa, the second- largest holder, included Burkle. The vote caps more than a year of Burkle and Riggio clashing over the company's direction as the chain tries to keep its 700 superstores profitable amid growing popularity of digital books and online sales.

Barnes & Noble Inc. said it will buy Babbage's Etc. for $189 million in a deal that would greatly expand the giant bookseller's offerings of computer software and video games. Privately held Babbage's is owned by Leonard Riggio, who is chairman and chief executive of New York-based Barnes & Noble. Barnes & Noble formed a special committee of independent directors to evaluate the feasibility and fairness of the deal, given Riggio's connection to both companies.

Barnes & Noble Inc. said fiscal fourth-quarter earnings fell 11%, hurt by its spinoff of the GameStop video game chain. Shares of the company dropped the most in 27 months after it forecast that profit this year wouldn't meet analysts' estimates. Net income slid for the third straight quarter, declining to $115.6 million, or $1.56 a share, from $130.2 million, or $1.65, a year earlier when GameStop added 30 cents a share to profit. Sales rose 5.4% to $1.

Barnes & Noble Inc. said its first-quarter net loss widened as it took a $14.9-million write-down for its investment in Gemstar-TV Guide International Inc., whose shares tumbled 75% last year. The largest U.S. bookstore chain raised its annual profit forecast because of surging video game sales at its 60%-owned GameStop Corp. video game chain. The loss widened to $16.3 million, or 25 cents a share, from $11.5 million, or 18 cents, a year earlier. Sales rose 12% to $1.13billion.

Barnes & Noble Inc. reported its first quarterly profit of the year, but the results were lower than expected and the company reduced its forecast for the rest of 2002. For the quarter ended Aug. 3, the bookseller reported a profit of $1.4 million, or 2 cents a share, an improvement from a loss of $1.7 million, or 3 cents, reported a year ago. Sales were up 10% to $1.16 billion. The company said it is lowering its second-half forecast because of the difficult retail environment.

PointCast Inc. said it will unveil a new subscription service for business customers and partner with Visa International and Barnes & Noble book retailer to expand its revenue sources and set the foundation for electronic commerce.

Barnes & Noble Inc., which withdrew from the nascent digital book market in 2006, said Monday that it had reentered the growing field and launched "the world's largest e-bookstore." The New York retailer, which operates 777 stores in the U.S., boasted that its online bookshop has more than 700,000 titles. Included in the tally are about half a million books in the public domain and available as free downloads via a partnership with Google Inc.

Barnes & Noble Inc. has changed its mind about the new O.J. Simpson book. After saying it would not stock copies of "If I Did It" in its stores, citing lack of customer demand, the chain said Thursday that it would indeed carry the book, due out Sept. 13. Since the initial decision Aug.