[kennyc]

Barnes & Noble sales light on Nook returns


(Reuters) - Barnes & Noble Inc (BKS.N) reported lower-than-expected quarterly sales as its Nook e-reader business was hurt by discounts as it competes with Amazon.com's (AMZN.O) Kindle franchise.

The company did not give any forecast for the current fiscal year's financial results and its shares fell 7.2 percent, or $1.10, to $14.17 in early trading.

"That's what kind of spooks investors here," Morningstar analyst Peter Wahlstrom said about the lack of a forecast. "We don't have much to really grasp on to."

Barnes & Noble has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into developing Nook, helped by well-reviewed devices including a glow-in-the-dark Nook, allowing it to garner some 27 percent of the U.S. e-books market in the 2-1/2 years since the reader was launched.

But that compares with Amazon's 60 percent, and in January, the retailer acknowledged slower-than-expected sales of devices like the black and white Nook Simple Touch.

The company's sales were hurt by returns of the device from retailers during the fourth quarter, which is typically the slowest sales quarter for Barnes & Noble.

Revenue for the quarter was $1.38 billion, up slightly from a year earlier, but below the average analyst estimate of $1.48 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
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http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/0...85I0WD20120619