Barnes & Noble Education Provides COVID-19 Update Mar 17,2020 Update on Full-Year 2020 Outlook BASKING RIDGE,N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Barnes & Noble Education, Inc. (NYSE:BNED), a leading solutions provider for the education industry,today announced various steps it is taking to help address some ofthe challenges that the schools and students it serves are facingdue to the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 virus. Yesterday, theCompany announced that it has joined VitalSource® and other leadingpublishers in providing free access to eTextbooks for students atBNED campuses that have closed due to COVID-19 through theremainder of the Spring 2020 term. Given the continued transitionto online and distance learning programs by colleges anduniversities nationwide, to help students, BNED is also offeringtargeted free self-tutoring and writing services through itsbartleby® suite of services, which will continue to providestudents with 24/7 on-demand access to academic assistance. MichaelP. Huseby, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman, BNED, said, “Ourtop priority remains providing schools and students with solutionsduring this time of unprecedented disruption, while simultaneouslyprotecting the health and safety of our employees and customers. Asan organization, we are closely monitoring the continuingdevelopments and following the guidance of the World HealthOrganization, Center for Disease Control (CDC) and local healthauthorities. While we cannot predict how long this situation willlast, BNED remains committed to actively supporting our students,faculty and the educational institutions we serve during this time.Given the economic uncertainty associated with the ongoing COVID-19outbreak, including the continued closures of educationalinstitutions nationwide, we are limited in our ability toaccurately predict what the negative financial impact to BNED willbe in fiscal 2020, and therefore believe it is appropriate towithdraw financial guidance for fiscal 2020.” BNED’s fiscal fourthquarter is historically a lower revenue quarter for the companybecause it does not include the fall and spring back-to-school rushperiods; nonetheless, due to the uncertainty regarding the durationand extent of the disruptions caused by COVID-19, BNED iswithdrawing its fiscal 2020 outlook. The Company does not intend toprovide further updates to its fiscal year 2020 outlook unlessdeemed appropriate. ABOUT BARNES & NOBLE EDUCATION, INC. Barnes& Noble Education, Inc. (NYSE: BNED) is a leading solutionsprovider for the education industry, driving affordability, accessand achievement at hundreds of academic institutions nationwide andensuring millions of students are equipped for success in theclassroom and beyond. Through its family of brands, BNED offerscampus retail services and academic solutions, a digitaldirect-to-student learning ecosystem, wholesale capabilities andmore. BNED is a company serving all who work to elevate their livesthrough education, supporting students, faculty and institutions asthey make tomorrow a better, more inclusive and smarter world. Formore information, visit www.bned.com. Forward-Looking StatementsThis press release contains certain “forward-looking statements”within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Actof 1995 and information relating to us and our business that arebased on the beliefs of our management as well as assumptions madeby and information currently available to our management. When usedin this communication, the words “anticipate,” “believe,”“estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “plan,” “will,” “forecasts,”“projections,” and similar expressions, as they relate to us or ourmanagement, identify forward-looking statements. Moreover, weoperate in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment. Newrisks emerge from time to time. It is not possible for ourmanagement to predict all risks, nor can we assess the impact ofall factors on our business or the extent to which any factor, orcombination of factors, may cause actual results to differmaterially from those contained in any forward-looking statementswe may make. In light of these risks, uncertainties andassumptions, the future events and trends discussed in this pressrelease may not occur and actual results could differ materiallyand adversely from those anticipated or implied in theforward-looking statements. Such statements reflect our currentviews with respect to future events, the outcome of which issubject to certain risks, including, among others: generalcompetitive conditions, including actions our competitors andcontent providers may take to grow their businesses; a decline incollege enrollment or decreased funding available for students;decisions by colleges and universities to outsource their physicaland/or online bookstore operations or change the operation of theirbookstores; implementation of our digital strategy may not resultin the expected growth in our digital sales and/or profitability;risk that digital sales growth does not exceed the rate ofinvestment spend; the performance of our online, digital and otherinitiatives, integration of and deployment of, additional productsand services including new digital channels, and enhancements tohigher education digital products, and the inability to achieve theexpected cost savings; the risk of price reduction or change informat of course materials by publishers, which could negativelyimpact revenues and margin; the general economic environment andconsumer spending patterns; decreased consumer demand for ourproducts, low growth or declining sales; the strategic objectives,successful integration, anticipated synergies, and/or otherexpected potential benefits of various acquisitions may not befully realized or may take longer than expected; the integration ofthe operations of various acquisitions into our own may alsoincrease the risk of our internal controls being found ineffective;changes to purchase or rental terms, payment terms, returnpolicies, the discount or margin on products or other terms withour suppliers; our ability to successfully implement our strategicinitiatives including our ability to identify, compete for andexecute upon additional acquisitions and strategic investments;risks associated with operation or performance of MBS TextbookExchange, LLC’s point-of-sales systems that are sold to collegebookstore customers; technological changes; risks associated withcounterfeit and piracy of digital and print materials; ourinternational operations could result in additional risks; ourability to attract and retain employees; risks associated with dataprivacy, information security and intellectual property; trends andchallenges to our business and in the locations in which we havestores; non-renewal of managed bookstore, physical and/or onlinestore contracts and higher-than-anticipated store closings;disruptions to our information technology systems, infrastructureand data due to computer malware, viruses, hacking and phishingattacks, resulting in harm to our business and results ofoperations; disruption of or interference with third party webservice providers and our own proprietary technology; workstoppages or increases in labor costs; possible increases inshipping rates or interruptions in shipping service; productshortages, including decreases in the used textbook inventorysupply associated with the implementation of publishers’ digitalofferings and direct to student textbook consignment rentalprograms, as well as the risks associated with the impacts thatpublic health crises may have on the ability of our suppliers tomanufacture or source products, particularly from outside of theUnited States; changes in domestic and international laws orregulations, including U.S. tax reform, changes in tax rates, lawsand regulations, as well as related guidance; enactment of laws orchanges in enforcement practices which may restrict or prohibit ouruse of texts, emails, interest based online advertising, recurringbilling or similar marketing and sales activities; the amount ofour indebtedness and ability to comply with covenants applicable toany future debt financing; our ability to satisfy future capitaland liquidity requirements; our ability to access the credit andcapital markets at the times and in the amounts needed and onacceptable terms; adverse results from litigation, governmentalinvestigations, tax-related proceedings, or audits; changes inaccounting standards; and the other risks and uncertaintiesdetailed in the section titled “Risk Factors” in Part I - Item 1Ain our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended April 27,2019. Should one or more of these risks or uncertaintiesmaterialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect,actual results or outcomes may vary materially from those describedas anticipated, believed, estimated, expected, intended or planned.Subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements attributableto us or persons acting on our behalf are expressly qualified intheir entirety by the cautionary statements in this paragraph. Weundertake no obligation to publicly update or revise anyforward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information,future events or otherwise after the date of this pressrelease.

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