Saturday, 06 October 2012 08:53

Microsoft joins Barnes & Noble

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hi-barnesnobleAs the Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 launch is rapidly approaching, Microsoft is trying to get as many partners as possible before it. This came in quite handy for Barnes & Noble as their biggest rival Amazon just launched the Kindle Paperwhite and sold the most units in the history of the Kindle family. Now Microsoft and B&N announced their partnership that will result in new subsidiary called NOOK MEDIA LLC. The book will be a joint venture of Barnes & Noble's NOOK Digital and College Business and the Microsoft Investment to Advanced Digital Reading Experience group.

To get things started Microsoft invested 300 million dollars into NOOK MEDIA LLC. They announced a NOOK application for Windows 8 and it was also confirmed by B&N CEO William Lynch that they will look to bring the best reading experience to Windows 8 users. B&N received praise from Microsoft's President Andy Lees, as he stated that they are brining “one of the world’s largest digital libraries” to their new OS. B&N had done a great job in the UK and now Microsoft hopes that together they can conquer the world market together.

Microsoft's $300 million investment will make them $1.7 billion post-money valuation in exchange for company shares. That means that Microsoft will have a control over 17.6% of NOOK MEDIA LLC shares. The deal is not yet officially approved and will require review before signatures are put on contracts. However if they sign the deal, it will be a nice addition to Windows 8 which gets criticized a lot. But will that help them get users to buy their new OS? Some of the big gaming companies have expressed their huge disappointment in Windows 8 and also there have been many complaints about weak security measures. At the end of the month we will see if Microsoft will find a trick up their sleeve to turn things into their favor.

[Ed – Microsoft’s investment in Barnes & Nobel was actually announced a while ago, but at the time they had no official name for the offshoot. Now they have decided to band the new company with the name of the popular eReader that Barnes & Nobel sell. We are not sure that Microsoft’s help will be a good thing for B&N. After all it has not helped Nokia that much…]

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Read 2645 times Last modified on Saturday, 06 October 2012 09:25

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