Barnes & Noble gets Fifty Shades kick, posts smaller loss

Barnes & Noble Inc reported a smaller than-expected quarterly net loss on Tuesday as it benefited from a pickup in sales of digital content and the popularity of the erotic "Fifty Shades" trilogy, and its shares rose 5 percent.

Digital content sales through the company's Nook business rose 46 percent, Barnes & Noble Chief Executive William Lynch said in a statement, while the bookstores benefited from market consolidation and strong "Fifty Shades" sales.

The "Fifty Shades" series by author E.L James is the story of a sadomasochistic affair between a wealthy entrepreneur and a naive literature student, and has been on bestseller lists around the world.

Revenue at the Nook business, which includes devices, was $192 million for the first quarter ended on July 28, compared with $191.4 million a year earlier.

Total revenue increased 2.5 percent to $1.5 billion.

Barnes & Noble said losses before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization at its Nook business had increased to $57 million from $51 million as it took down prices on its devices and continued to make investments.

The company, which has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into the development of the Nook, claims a 27 percent share of the U.S. e-book market, compared with 60 percent for Amazon.com Inc. It said on Monday that it would introduce the Nook in the United Kingdom.

The largest U.S. bookstore chain said its net loss for the quarter had narrowed to $41 million, or 78 cents per share, from $56.6 million, or 99 cents a share.

Analysts on average were expecting a loss of 98 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Shares of the company were up 5 percent at $12.97 in early trading.

Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012