Profits up, profits down: this week in actual business stuff

By Carmen 

Since so many companies are reporting on their quarterly earnings – successful or not – it seemed a good idea to combine them all in one handy-to-use post. So in short order:

Scholastic adjusts its share count, which lowers a per-share price by 3 cents for the previous fiscal year.

Reed Elsevier is thrilled about a 14 percent rise in pre-tax profit, and commends Harcourt Education for boosting US-side sales.

Amazon is still hurting, badly
, but that won’t stop it from trying new things…

And Barnes & Noble is trying to stay out of trouble with the SEC thanks to a quickly-spreading scandal over stock options that has grown to over 80 companies.