Here are some highlights from last week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

• American Eagle Outfitters Inc. (NYSE: AEO) Q2 profit fell short of estimates as same-store sales declined.
• Ann Taylor Stores Corp. (NYSE: ANN) Q2 earnings beat very low expectations and same-store sales fell.
• Big Lots Inc. (NYSE: BIG) reported better-than-expected numbers for Q2, sending shares upward.
• Burger King Holdings Inc. (NYSE: BKC) posted a better-than-expected Q4 profit though revenue declined.
• China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. posted a record Q2 profit after restrictions on fuel prices were lifted.
• Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) said its Q2 earnings declined, but they still topped analysts' expectations.

Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), a bookseller that competes with Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT), and Borders Group, Inc. (NYSE: BGP), issued a Q2 earnings report on Thursday morning that in no way makes me want to invest in the company. As far as I'm concerned, the retailer has a lot of work to do, and I wouldn't want to involve my portfolio with a business that is still trying to find its way.

Barnes & Noble earned 14 cents per share on an adjusted basis. Earnings.com reports an expectation of 10 cents per share. So management went beyond projections. Should shareholders be content with such news and call it a day?

Twilight and Harry Potter sales notwithstanding, there's a growing reality in our fair nation -- people just don't read like they used to. And with the slowdown in reading comes a definite decline in book sales.

The Book Industry Study Group reported that publishers sold fewer books in 2008, down 1.5% from 2007 to 3.08 billion. Of course, all was not lost -- total revenue edged 1% higher thanks to increased prices.

Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

• American Electric Power Co. Inc. (NYSE: AEP) lowered its earnings forecast for fiscal 2009.
• Apollo Group Inc. (NASDAQ: APOL) reported better-than-expected Q2 earnings and strong revenue growth.
• Borders Group Inc. (NYSE: BGP) reported better-than-expected Q4 earnings despite a decline in sales.
• CarMax Inc. (NYSE: KMX) soaring earnings beat Q4 expectations despite a decline in revenue.
• Colgate-Palmolive Co. (NYSE: CL) was downgraded on risk to its earnings from currency issues.

After rounds of layoffs and cost-cutting, Borders Group (NYSE: BGP) is struggling for survival against a large debt load and declining fundamentals.

But the company got a stay of execution yesterday when it announced that its $42.5 million loan agreement with William Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management had been extended for another year. One explanation for Ackman's lenience is his status as the company's largest shareholder in addition to being a major creditor.

The Consumerist, a website published by the parent of Consumer Reports, has a potential lead on an alleged development at Borders Group (NYSE: BGP). Forgive all the wishy-washy verbiage; nothing is confirmed yet. An individual identifying him/herself as a Borders employee informed the website that the chain is severely paring down its CD and DVD sections, leaving only top sellers and reducing the prices of those.

Said alleged employee also encourages shoppers to wait for deep-discount sales of remaining digital inventory in the coming weeks.

On one hand (or on many hands), this makes sense. The advent of MP3 technology, Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN), Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX), and file-sharing services have seen bigger and better CD/DVD outlets (e.g. Tower Records - SOB!) go belly up, so why wouldn't Borders focus all of its energy on its more popular books line?

On February 19th, Borders Group (NYSE: BGP) announced that it was laying off 136 of its corporate-level workers -- 12% of its corporate workforce and 1% of its overall employee base.

A couple weeks later, the cuts are getting even more draconian as the company deals with a massive debt load and poor sales that threaten its viability. In a press release issued mid-way through the trading day, Borders announced that it was cutting 742 store workers, equal to a little less than 3% of the company's overall workforce.

Borders Group (NYSE: BGP) announced today that it has laid off another 136 members of its corporate workforce. That amounts to 12% of its corporate workers and 1% of its overall headcount.

In a press release, CEO Ron Marshall called the cuts "necessary steps we must take along with other non-payroll expense reductions to help get this company back on track financially." The layoff report has the company's stock up more than 7% -- to 55 cents per share, about 95% lower than the stock was trading one year ago.

Struggling bookseller Borders Group (NYSE: BGP) saw its shares rise 8% on Tuesday after the company announced that it had appointed 32-year old Richard "Mick" McGuire to fill the role of chairman of its board of directors.

McGuire succeeds Larry Pollock, who had indicated to Borders that he wanted to give up the role of chairman. He will remain as a director. According (subscription required) to The Wall Street Journal, "Pershing Square currently owns 10.6 million shares of Borders common stock, or 18% of the shares outstanding. If Pershing executes its 14.7 million warrants, it would own 25.3 million shares, or 33.6% of the total. Mr. McGuire, who had been a partner in Pershing Square when he joined the Borders board, is leaving Pershing Square to "pursue entrepreneurial interests."

It's sort of an interesting development for Borders: The company's market cap has slipped to just $40 million, and bankruptcy is considered by many to be a reasonably likely destination. The fact that Mr. McGuire is willing to deepen his relationship with the company would seem to suggest that there may yet be some hope for shareholders.

Still, it seems like a bad bet. The company's value has been butchered by bad management and change in the executive suite may have come too late.

Ronald W. Burkle, the grocery magnate with a net worth estimated at more than $3 billion, has acquired an 8.3% stake in Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS) through his Yucaipa American Funds, LLC investment vehicle.

The 13-D contained nothing especially interesting -- just the usual boilerplate: The shares were acquired for investment purposes, but also reserved the right to talk to other investors or management about ways to maximize value. The 13-D added that the shares were acquired because the investors believed they "were undervalued by the market at the time they were acquired."

The Wall Street Journal notes (subscription required) that while the company has seen its performance battered by economic woes, it has a strong balance sheet and competent management. If Borders Group (NYSE: BGP) collapses, Barnes & Noble could be the most direct beneficiary. The deathwatch is one, with shares of Borders trading around 50 cents per pop.

Given the high regard that the company's management is held in, this investment seems unlikely to turn into a true activist situation: So while Burkle's investment is a strong vote of confidence from a highly respected mogul, it's not likely to be much of a catalyst for anything.

Shares of Borders Group (NYSE: BGP) are down 26% to 39 cents per share today after the company announced an agreement to "extend the expiration date of the previously announced Borders option to "put" its U.K.-based Paperchase gifts and stationery business to Pershing Square for $65 million, subject to certain conditions."

The company also extended the deadline for its repayment of a $42.5 million loan made to to the company by Pershing Square, a hedge fund run by superstar value investor William Ackman.

Last month Borders abandoned its efforts to sell itself but with its balance sheet presenting a serious problem in the face of tanking sales, investors are incredibly skeptical about the company's future. The company's market cap of less than $25 million indicates that many investors believe that the company is a candidate for bankruptcy court.

While the economic smackdown certainly isn't Borders' fault, the company has made an enormous number of strategic blunders, starting with investing millions of dollars in an e-commerce site that will never be a serious threat to larger rivals.

Bookselling behemoth Borders Group (NYSE: BGP) has signed a deal with HarperStudio to accept the new News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) imprint's books on a nonreturnable basis. In the publishing industry, unsold books can generally be returned to the publisher. In exchange, Borders will get a slightly better deal: 58% to 63% off the cover price, instead of the usual 48%, according (subscription required) to The Wall Street Journal.

Is this the future of the book business? No one knows, but the timing certainly couldn't be more strange for Borders. Terrible results and a failed effort to sell the company have sent the stock down to 65 cents per share. The company's balance sheet is a mess and there has been considerable speculation that the company's final destination is bankruptcy. Given those circumstances, it's hard to understand why the company would want to invest in inventory that they're completely on the hook for -- and can't return if they can't sell it.

HarperStudio is a brand new imprint, with former Hyperion boss Robert Miller at the helm. The plan is to shake up the publishing industry with lower advances offset by higher royalties. Cutting down on returns is another goal aimed at reducing costs.

Scoring this deal with Borders looks like quite a coup for HarperStudio, but it remains to be seen how long Borders will last as a relevant piece of the bookselling industry.

Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

• American Eagle Outfitters Inc. (NYSE: AEO) saw lower Q3 results in the tough retail envirnoment.
• Analog Devices Inc. (NYSE: ADI) Q4 profit surged but it lowered its Q1 forecast due to slowing orders.
• Borders Group Inc. (NYSE: BGP) had dismal Q3 results and said it had ceased its quest to sell itself.
• Campbell Soup Co. (NYSE: CPB) solid Q1 results beat estimates but shares fell despite a market rally.
• Deere & Co. (NYSE: DE) fell short of Q4 profit expectations and guidance was below estimates.
• Dollar Tree Inc. (NASDAQ: DLTR) had a bigger-than-expected Q3 profit and raised its full-year outlook.
• D.R. Horton Inc. (NYSE: DHI) reported a wider Q4 loss as home sales revenue declined by 50%.
• Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) posted strong Q4 numbers that didn't quite match the preliminary results.
• Salesforce.com Inc. (NYSE: CRM) had strong results and an optimistic forecast despite economic conditions.
• Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ: SBUX) lowered its fiscal 2009 forecast and warned of further restructuring.
• Tiffany & Co. (NYSE: TIF) Q3 earnings declined but topped expectations, and it announced staff reductions.
• Warner Music Group Corp. (NYSE: WMG) Q4 earnings beat expectations though revenues fell slightly.
• Xerox Corp. (NYSE: XRX) forecast a full-year profit in line with estimates and said it is confident in its liquidity.

Upcoming earnings releases include Sears (NASDAQ: SHLD), Staples (NASDAQ: SPLS), Aeropostale (NYSE: ARO), Del Monte Foods (NYSE: DLM), Guess (NYSE: GES), Novell (NASDAQ: NOVL), Toll Brothers (NYSE: TOL), Big Lots (NYSE: BIG), Royal Bank of Canada (NYSE: RY).

Visit AOL Money & Finance for more earnings coverage.

Shares of Borders Group (NYSE: BGP) tanked in after-hours trading Tuesday after the company reported dismal third quarter results and told investors that it had officially given up on its quest to sell itself. Comparable store sales were down 12.8% at the company's flagship superstores, and the company reported an operating loss of $39 million.

The press release added that "Regarding Paperchase, as previously disclosed, Borders Group retains its right to exercise its "put" option to sell its Paperchase business to Pershing Square Capital Management for $65 million and is also in discussions with Pershing Square regarding an alternative financing transaction."

I think that most observers had long ago given up on Borders' hopes of a sale. The company had reduced its debt load by $273 million this year by paring back on inventory, curbing expansion and selling its businesses in Austrlia, New Zealand and Singapore.

Long-term, the company's lousy financial position will make it difficult for it to compete with better-financed competitors like Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS), which is something it will have to do now that it's no longer pursuing a sale. Reducing inventory comes at the cost of selection and customer experience. For the same quarter, Barnes & Noble's comparable store sales decreased by just 7.4%.

Borders shares are down 40% in premarket trading (8:58 am).

The earnings season is beginning to wind down as we have passed the halfway mark of the quarter and the holiday season begins in earnest next week with Thanksgiving in the United States.

Bermuda-based Frontline Ltd. (NYSE: FRO) is anticipated by analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters to be one of the biggest earnings gainers among companies scheduled to report quarterly results this coming week. The oil tanker fleet operator is expected to post third-quarter earnings of $1.97 per share, 86.8% higher than in the same period a year ago, on revenues of $399.5 million (+44.6%). Frontline missed estimates by 6.4% in the previous quarter, and the consensus recommendation by analysts is to hold FRO. While Motley Fool likes its robust dividend, Jim Cramer said in a recent Lightning Round that he prefers rival Nordic American Tanker Shipping Ltd. (NYSE: NAT). Shares have fallen 52.9% in the past three months, and reached a 52-week low of $25.00 on Friday.

Analog Devices Inc. (NYSE: ADI) is also expected to be among the week's biggest earnings gainers. Analysts are looking for the semiconductor chip maker to report a fiscal fourth-quarter profit of $0.44 per share, 31.8% higher than a year ago, on revenues of $661.7 million (+2.0%). Analog Devices has beat estimates in three of the past five quarters, but only missed by 1.3% in the previous quarter. Analysts on average recommend buying ADI, which has a forecast long-term EPS growth rate of 17.3%, which better than the S&P 500 and that of rival Texas Instruments Inc. (NYSE: TXN). Shares sank to a multiyear low of $16.23 on Friday, and are down 41.1% in the past three months.