* Barnes and Noble (BKS) may spin off its Nook e-reader business, news that came as a surprise to many. The company slashed its fiscal 2012 guidance and now expects sales of $7.1 billion instead of the $7.3 billion forecast. The reason? Lower-than-expected sales of its Nook Simple Touch. (CNNMoney)

* Over at The Loop, writer Matt Alexander argues that e-ink-based e-readers like the Kindle and Nook are doomed. Wonderful they may be, but he sees their real purpose as patching “a gap that cannot be patched technologically” yet by many tablets. (The Loop)

* One of Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson’s first orders of business may be dealing with whether to back a tax deal called a “cash rich split-off.” While Yahoo would stand to save up to $4 billion in taxes, such a deal might not fly with the IRS. (The Wall Street Journal)

* Warner Brothers just clinched a deal with Netflix (NFLX), Redbox and Blockbuster that doubles the window for DVD releases of its movies. In other words, each of the three services will have to wait 56 days intend of 28 days before they can offer up Warner Brothers DVDs for rental. (All Things D)

* Samsung reported record quarterly profit of nearly $4.5 billion thanks to sales of its Galaxy phones and the sale of its hard-disk business. (Bloomberg)

* iPhone 4S users consume almost twice as much data as users of the iPhone 4, due in large part to Siri, Apple’s personal voice assistant. (Bloomberg)

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