Barnes & Noble Q4 Loss Narrows; To Separate Retail And NOOK Media Businesses

(RTTNews) - Barnes & Noble Inc. (BKS) reported a narrower loss in its fourth quarter ended May 3, 2014, and that its Board authorized management to separate the Barnes & Noble Retail and NOOK Media businesses.

Net loss available to common shareholders for the quarter narrowed to $42.55 million and $0.72 per share, from the prior year's $119.50 million and $2.04 per share.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report a loss of $0.59 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

In the fourth quarter, the company recorded a $12.5 million tax benefit, driven primarily by the utilization of previously reserved deferred tax assets.

Quarterly sales grew to $1.32 billion from $1.28 billion in the year ago quarter. Wall Street expected revenues of $1.19 billion.

The company noted that its board has authorized management of the Company to take steps to separate the Barnes & Noble Retail and NOOK Media businesses into two separate public companies. The Company's objective is to take the steps necessary to complete the separation by the end of the first quarter of next calendar year.

For fiscal year 2015, the Company expects both Retail comparable bookstore sales and Core comparable bookstore sales to decline in the low-single digits. College comparable store sales are also expected to decline in the low-single digits. The company expects to continue to decrease EBITDA losses in the NOOK segment.