Books-A-Million skyrockets on Wal-Mart deal

Shares of Books-A-Million (Nasdaq: BAMM) skyrocketed as high 99 percent Thursday after Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) announced an agreement to make the No. 3 U.S. book retailer the exclusive provider of books to Wal-Mart's online customers.

At 10:35 a.m., Books-A-Million was up 6 5/32 to 13 11/16, or 82 percent.

The Birmingham, Ala.-based Books-A-Million has a spotty track record; it snuck past first quarter estimates after missing estimates in the fourth quarter. Books-A-Million operates 177 stores in 17 states, and has been in business for over 80 years.

This isn't the first time shares have gone through the roof on news it was expanding into e-commerce. The company was put on the radar screen when it launched a Web site last November.

Books-A-Million shares have a 52-week high of 47 reached at the peak of its Web site hype last November.

Books-A-Million is the latest company to ally with Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart, which also signed a deal with Fingerhut, a catalog retailing unit of Federated Department Stores (NYSE: FD) to fill its Internet orders earlier this month.

Wal-Mart operates more than 2,400 stores and 450 Sam's Clubs in the United States and has more than 725 locations internationally.

"Wal-Mart's online customers will have access to hundreds of thousands of book titles at our every day low prices,'' said Glenn Habern, Wal-Mart's Senior Vice-President of New Business Development in a company release.