Barnes & Noble has announced a ”strategic partnership” on e-reading with Microsoft today. The partnership is focused on spinning off the Nook business into a separate B&N subsidiary. No name has been decided for the new subsidiary but Microsoft will be investing $300 million for a 17.6 percent stake in the venture. As a by-product of the investment Microsoft has announced a Windows 8 Nook application.
One thing that Microsoft has been missing until today in its ecosystem is ebooks. This investment makes sense as they gain a large library of ebooks for Windows 8.
