Microsoft Aims to Gobble up Parts of Nook Media for $1B USD

From DailyTech: While the Nook HD+ is a well-known budget Android tablet, the days of the Nook may be numbered. According to a report by TechCrunch, internal documents indicate that Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) is offering Barnes & Noble, Inc. (BKS) a $1B USD buyout to acquire some of the assets of Nook Media LLC, which Microsoft will then look to reposition as the go-to digital college textbook source across its platforms.

E-INK readers have been a double-edged sword for Barnes & Noble. While Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) showed the market that e-books are a ticket to higher profits, B&N's Nook -- launched during the 2009 holiday season -- has been largely a money loser for B&N. The company added a color Android tablet (the Nook Color) during the holiday 2010 season, which was followed by the Nook HD and Nook HD+ tablets.

The platform has seen it successes, selling 10 million units to date. While far from Amazon's Kindle sales, Nook's active base of 7 million subscribers is certainly worth something. But the ongoing losses have caused the company to question the utility of that asset.

The book seller had looked to spin off the unit, but stabilized when Microsoft injected $300M USD into the "Newco" joint e-book venture. Microsoft owned approximately 16.8 percent stake in Newco, while B&N owned 83.2 percent ($1.49B USD) of the venture as of its April 2012 launch.

However, since then the joint venture has devalued as its e-readers continued to struggle in sales, driving losses at B&N. B&N, currently considering going private, may be tempted to unload parts of its digital business to offset these losses.

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