"While I reserve the right to pursue an offer in the future, I believe it is in the company's best interests to focus on the business at hand," Riggio wrote in an amended filing Tuesday. "Right now our priority should be to serve the more than 10 million customers who own Nook devices, to concentrate on building our retail business, and to accelerate the sale of Nook products in our stores, and in the marketplace." The announcement comes as New York-based Barnes & Noble reported fiscal first-quarter sales of $1.3 billion, down 8.5% from a year prior, and an Ebitda loss of $8.9 million. Sales gains in the company's college unit were unable to offset declines in its retail and Nook operations. During the quarter, the retail operation was the only part of Barnes & Noble that was profitable, though the company attributed the college unit's $19 million Ebitda loss to new store expenses and investments in digital education. Barnes & Noble ended the quarter with $73 million in net cash.