[fjtorres]

A Nook spin off underway, step one.

Interestingly (and intelligently) they are bundling the college bookstores into the spin-off, which suggests they *correctly* undertand the next step in the ebook evolution is the academic market.

Unstated, but obviously implied, is that they probably have reached an accomodation on B&N's licensing of Microsoft patents.

It seems to value Nook at about $1 billion, which is about right.

It'll be interesting to see if MS will have any input in the direction of "Newco" or if they're just throwing some spare change around to promote Win8 in the academic world.