The bottomline

NEW YORK: Book retailer Barnes & Noble returned to a profit in the fiscal second quarter as cost cuts offset lower sales.

The company’s sales missed expectations, however, and its shares fell 6 percent in midday trading. The report comes as the crucial holiday season kicks off, when retailers can make up to 40 percent of their annual revenue.

Barnes & Noble has been evaluating its strategy for its Nook e-book reader after years of investing heavily in the business and developing a color tablet, the Nook HD+, that has faced tough competition from Amazon’s Kindle and the Apple iPad.

Things have been in flux since June when CEO William Lynch left the company, which has not named a replacement. It introduced a new non-tablet ebook reader, a $119 Nook GlowLight, for the holidays. (AP) NEW YORK: Hewlett-Packard posted net income of $1.4 billion for its fiscal fourth-quarter, as cost cuts stemming from its ongoing restructuring more than offset the effects of sluggish computer demand.

The world’s second-largest maker of PCs, considered a bellwether in the technology industry, also issued a strong profit prediction for the current quarter.

The Palo Alto, California-based company’s stock rose $1.66, or 7 percent, to $26.82 in extended trading after the results were released. The shares had dipped 16 cents to close at $25.16 in Tuesday’s regular trading session.

So far this year, HP’s stock has gained about 77 percent. (AP) NEW YORK: Consumer research and TV ratings firm Nielsen agreed to buy market research firm Harris Interactive for about $116.6 million, saying it will help it provide insights to customers.

Consumer research and TV ratings firm Nielsen agreed to buy market research firm Harris Interactive for about $116.6 million, saying it will help it provide insights to customers.

Harris Interactive said Nielsen agreed to pay $2 per share, but the price may change. The per-share amount is 4 percent below Harris Interactive Inc.’s $2.08 Friday closing price. (AP) LONDON: Topps Tiles, Britain’s largest specialist tile retailer, said trading in its new financial year had started strongly as it posted its first rise in adjusted pretax profit since 2007.

The company, which has 327 stores and also sells flooring, said on Tuesday adjusted pretax profit rose to 13 million pounds ($21 million) for the year to Sept 28, ahead of 12.8 million pounds a LONDON: Britain’s Royal Mail said rising parcel revenue and ongoing cost cuts helped the newly-privatised postal operator almost double its operating profit in the first half of the year.

Reporting for the first time as a London listed company following the government’s high-profile sale of a 60 percent stake, Royal Mail said on Wednesday operating profit after transformation costs had jumped to 283 million pounds ($458 million).

That figure for the six months to Sept 29 was 96.5 percent ahead of the 144 million pounds posted in the same period a year ago, helped also by a one-off VAT credit of 35 million pounds and lower than expected transformation costs. (RTRS) year ago and in line with analyst expectations.

Topps’ profits have fallen by almost two thirds during the downturn as squeezed discretionary spend, low consumer confidence and a constricted housing market weighed on sales. (RTRS) LONDON: Shareholders in UK shale developer Dart Energy backed a boardoom coup this week, voting out the chairman and his allies despite his warning that the move was an attempt to acquire the company on the cheap.

New Hope Coal, leader of the coup, cited years of poor performance.

The move comes amid intense investor scrutiny of Britain’s shale oil and gas drilling scene. Britain is seen as a European test bed for the controversial extraction practice of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. (RTRS) LONDON: Britain’s Oxford Instruments said it had made a firm offer to buy scientific camera maker Andor Technology for about 159 million pounds ($257 million), the same price it indicated it would be willing to pay earlier this month.

Oxford Instruments had been in talks with Andor for some months before making its interest public on Nov 12, a move that Andor said was “premature” and “unhelpful” in light of the negotiations. Oxford Instruments said on Wednesday it had confirmed its 500 pence a share bid to the target company’s board and it was seeking its endorsement. (RTRS) LONDON: British catering firm Compass said Wednesday that it would return £500 million ($815 million, 600 million euros) cash to shareholders, despite news of falling annual net earnings.

Profits after taxation sank by almost a third to £429 million ($698 million, 514 million euros) in the 12 months to September, compared with £605 million in the previous 2011/2012 financial year, Compass said in a results statement.

However, the world’s biggest caterer by sales added that it would return £500 million to shareholders on the back of improving margins and revenues.

Revenues grew 3.9 percent to £17.6 billion, aided by the company’s US and emerging markets divisions. (AFP) NICOSIA, Cyprus: Cyprus’ largest bank said Tuesday that deposits shrank by over a third in the first half of 2013, a period in which it was a central player in the country’s messy financial crisis.

Bank of Cyprus said that deposits fell 40 percent to 17 billion euros ($23 billion) by the end of June from 28.4 billion euros six months earlier. During that period, Cyprus negotiated a financial rescue with its euro partners and the International Monetary Fund that forced uninsured depositors to take big losses on savings in the country’s top two lenders. (AP) FRANKFURT: German fashion house Hugo Boss said Tuesday it will not achieve its targeted profit margin by 2015, sending the group’s shares into a tailspin on the Frankfurt stock exchange.

Hugo Boss said in a statement issued over night that while it was sticking to a goal to reach operating profit margin of 25 percent, it “assumed this goal will only be reached after 2015.” (AFP)