Barnes & Noble Falls 30% on Lowered Guidance

Barnes & Noble

shares fell 30% today after the company lowered its 2012 guidance. The company stated that it expected sales of $7.0-7.2B vs a $7.4B prior guidance. Analysts had forecasted $7.36B in sales. Barnes & Noble has faced a lot of competition from online retailers like Amazon

as the large number of physical stores adds a great deal of costs to their balance sheet. Barnes also announced that it was exploring the possibility of separating its Nook business from its core books business. The Nook has struggled to gain traction in a market dominated by Amazon's Kindle. Nook holidays sales jumped 70% compared to the year prior.