By Phil Wahba and Ben Berkowitz

(Reuters) – Shares in Barnes & Noble Inc rose 18 percent on Thursday after a report that Microsoft Corp is considering an offer to acquire the tablet and e-book business of B&N’s Nook Media unit.

The technology website TechCrunch reported that Microsoft, which already owns a 17 percent stake in Nook Media, was proposing a $1 billion offer to buy all of Nook’s digital assets. A source familiar with the document cited by TechCrunch confirmed its authenticity.

By Liana B. Baker and Ben Berkowitz

(Reuters) – Sprint Nextel Corp on Monday said its merger partner, SoftBank Corp, has waived some terms of their agreement so that Sprint can seek more information from rival suitor Dish Network Corp.

The exchange of information between Sprint and Dish indicates the companies are in conversations about the satellite broadcaster’s $25.5 billion takeover bid, even if Sprint for now is standing by its $20.1 billion pact with SoftBank.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. companies have easily beaten expectations for first-quarter earnings so far in the reporting season, but nearly half of the members of the S&P 500 are yet to announce results and they are unlikely to be as robust.

With results in from 271 of the S&P 500 companies, year-over-year earnings growth is projected at 3.9 percent, compared with a forecast for 1.5 percent growth at the start of the earnings season, Thomson Reuters data shows. That figure includes those that have reported and analyst estimates for those who have not.

NEW YORK, April 28 (Reuters) – U.S. companies have easily
beaten expectations for first-quarter earnings so far in the
reporting season, but nearly half of the members of the S&P 500
are yet to announce results and they are unlikely to be as
robust.

With results in from 271 of the S&P 500 companies,
year-over-year earnings growth is projected at 3.9 percent,
compared with a forecast for 1.5 percent growth at the start of
the earnings season, Thomson Reuters data shows. That figure
includes those that have reported and analyst estimates for
those who have not.

SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc’s stock sank 6 percent on Friday as a poor financial outlook revived concerns about whether the company can sustain its torrid pace of expansion while profitability improves.

The world’s largest Internet retailer on Thursday reported its highest gross profit margins in a decade as years of spending on high-margin businesses, from digital media to cloud services, began to pay off. But slower revenue growth and a disappointing outlook for this quarter exacerbated uncertainty about the its business beyond the United States.

SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK, April 26 (Reuters) – Amazon.com
Inc’s stock sank nearly 8 percent on Friday on concerns
about slowing growth at the world’s largest Internet retailer.

Analysts at J.P. Morgan, Credit Suisse and Pacific Crest
Securities lowered their price targets on Amazon shares, citing
the top-line deceleration.

SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK, April 26 (Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc
appears to have figured out the secret to being more
profitable: sell less physical stuff.

The company reported slowing revenue growth and offered a
disappointing outlook for this quarter on Thursday, exacerbating
uncertainty about the health of its business beyond the United
States.

April 23 (Reuters) – Tim Cook wants investors to “think
different” about Apple: less as a hyper-growth startup-like
company and more as a mature but robust technology corporation
with the world’s most lucrative dividend.

If Wall Street follows Apple’s famous advertising slogan of
old, it may relieve some of the pressure on Apple’s chief
executive, quiet investors’ grumbling about its recent share
price slide, and buy the company time to do what it says it does
best: come up with and market new products.

BOSTON (Reuters) – Federal prosecutors prepared criminal charges on Sunday against an ethnic Chechen suspected in the deadly Boston Marathon bombings as he lay severely wounded, unable to speak and hospitalized under heavy guard two days after his dramatic capture.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, who suffered damage to his tongue when shot through the throat before his arrest, was initially under sedation and incapable of being interviewed by investigators, authorities said. He also had been shot in the leg.

BOSTON (Reuters) – Federal prosecutors prepared criminal charges on Sunday against the 19-year-old suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings who was seriously wounded, unable to speak, and under heavy guard at a city hospital two days after his dramatic capture.

Investigators could not interview Dzhokhar Tsarnaev as they searched for clues to what may have driven him and his brother, ethnic Chechens who came to the United States 10 years ago, to plant the bombs, and whether anyone else was involved.