NEW YORK (Reuters) - Barnes & Noble Inc reported a larger-than-expected quarterly loss on declining sales at its namesake brick-and-mortar stores and costs to develop its Nook electronic book reader.
Shares of the largest U.S. bookstore chain fell nearly 3 percent.
Barnes & Noble reported a net loss of $62.5 million, or $1.12 per share, for the first quarter ended July 31, compared with a year-earlier profit of $12.3 million, or 21 cents per share.
Excluding one-time items, the loss was $1.02 per share, deeper than the 80 cents Wall Street analysts expected, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Sales, which reflect last September's purchase of College Booksellers, rose 20.8 percent to $1.4 billion.
Online sales, including the Nook e-reader device launched in October and e-books, rose 42 percent to $145 million.
Sales at namesake bookstores open at least a year fell 0.9 percent, and the company said it expected a decline of 1 percent to 3 percent in the current quarter. For the full year, it still expects those same-store sales to be flat to up 3 percent.
Barnes & Noble, which earlier this month put itself up for sale, is in the midst of a proxy war being waged by its two largest shareholders.
The bookseller said legal and other costs surrounding the contest would hurt results, and it lowered its full-year forecast by 25 cents per share to a loss of 25 cents to 65 cents.
The company's shares were down 2.7 percent at $14.60 in premarket trading.
(Reporting by Phil Wahba; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)
