• TechCrunch, Tuesday, February 21, 2012 12:09 PM

It’s no iPad, but the Nook is certainly good for Barnes and Noble’s bottom line. For the company’s fiscal third-quarter, its Nook business -- across all of its segments, including sales of digital content, device hardware and related accessories -- increased 38% to $542 million. “Nook unit sales, including Nook Simple Touch, Nook Color and the new Nook Tablet, increased 64% during the third quarter as compared to the same period last year,” reports TechCrunch, citing Barnes and Noble data. Digital content sales increased 85% on a comparable basis.

Overall, Barnes and Noble reported a total sales increase of 5% year-over-year from $2.3 billion to $2.4 billion -- falling short of analyst expectations, TechCrunch notes. “Net income was $52 million, which is flat with the previous year’s earnings.” Third quarter earnings per share was $0.71 -- missing analyst expectations of $1.01 per share. Barnes and Noble previously stated that its Nook Tablet “exceeded expectations” over the holidays, with device sales up 70%. That said, “As a whole, today’s earnings were not stellar considering that this is supposed to be the company’s high season for sales because of the holidays,” TechCrunch adds.

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