Ah, there you go:
Quote:
The release notes that B&N and Microsoft “have settled their patent litigation, and moving forward, Barnes & Noble and Newco will have a royalty-bearing license under Microsoft’s patents for its Nook e-reader and tablet products.”
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http://paidcontent.org/2012/04/30/mi...f-digital-biz/
Some analysis:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/petercoh...rtner=yahootix
Edit: The reason for the stock price boost:
Quote:
The beleaguered book store generated $5.7 billion in revenues and lost $11 million during the nine months ending January 2012, according to its latest 10Q.
And it burned through $32 million in cash during that period ending with about $27 million worth. And if it keeps burning through cash at this rate, it will run out within the year. So it’s not a big surprise that Barnes & Noble’s stock market value Friday was a mere $823 million — half the value of Newco.
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If "Newco" is valued at twice what *all* of B&N was valued at last week, then the value of the 82% of the spinoff that B&N owns has to be baked in to the price of the holding company.
The move was inevitable and the only way B&N could afford to make the patent lawsuit go away. (Since public whining was never going to work.)