Microsoft & Barnes and Noble sittin' in a tree...

[MovieBird]

Originally Posted by Yahoo Finance

Barnes & Noble Inc. and Microsoft Corp. are teaming up to create a new Barnes & Noble subsidiary that will house the digital and college businesses of the bookseller and include a Nook application for Windows 8.

The companies said Monday that they are exploring separating those businesses entirely. That could mean a stock offering, sale, or other deal could happen.

The partnership will Microsoft, will see the Redmond, Wash. company make a $300 million investment in the subsidiary for an approximately 17.6 percent stake. Barnes & Noble will own about 82.4 percent of the subsidiary, which has yet to be officially named.

I think I was most surprised at the fact that BN only operates 691 stores throughout the US.

[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.

[Rob Lister]

A poorly written article, generally. I think the 691 number refers specifically to their college bookstores. Their regular stores total something like 700. Having been to both, I can't really tell the difference.

...
The Nook app will make Barnes & Noble's catalog of e-books, magazines and newspapers available to Windows customers in the U.S. and abroad.

I'm not sure what that refers to. It makes it appear like a new thing.

[Rob Lister]

Originally Posted by 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.

You should write for Yahoo Finance. Your single post had more insight than the entire linked article.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Rob Lister

I'm not sure what that refers to. It makes it appear like a new thing.

It refers to the Nook ebookstore.

What is going on is that:
1- B&N is spinning off Nook and the ebookstores into a new business.
2- MS is buying 17% of the stock of the "Newco" spinoff.
3- "Newco" will make a Nook App for Windows 8 devices (which they were going to have to do anyway) so that Win8 users can access the Nook ebookstore.
4- B&N gets $300 million to operate "Newco" for a while plus the MS co-sign for any loans "Newco" applies for.

B&N gets a boost, MS gets very little they wouldn't get anyway for a trivial bit of cash.

Business as usual.

Edit: Oh, yes: MS has generally cordial relations with Amazon (and supply tech to Blio) so there's no need to spin this as any kind of message to Amazon.

[Top100EbooksRank]

http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=BKS

B&N stock just DOUBLED (in pre-trading)

Pre-Market: 27.54 13.86 (101.32%)


Friday: $13.62 a share
3 days later: $27.54 a share (in pre-trading)

[ATimson]

Originally Posted by Rob Lister

A poorly written article, generally. I think the 691 number refers specifically to their college bookstores. Their regular stores total something like 700. Having been to both, I can't really tell the difference.

Simple: the regular stores carry novels, the college stores carry textbooks and school-branded memorabilia with maybe a shelf of (remaindered) novels for sale.

I wonder if this will be the push B&N needs to finally make a Nook app for Windows Phone 7?

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by ATimson

I wonder if this will be the push B&N needs to finally make a Nook app for Windows Phone 7?

Probably.
Might have to wait until the update to Win8 but one way or another it'll come.

[fjtorres]

Ah, there you go:

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.”

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:

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.

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.)

[MovieBird]

Originally Posted by Rob Lister

A poorly written article, generally. I think the 691 number refers specifically to their college bookstores. Their regular stores total something like 700. Having been to both, I can't really tell the difference

Is 700 so very different from 691? According to Wikipedia, BN had 723 stores in operation as of August, 2011. They've since closed many stores, so the 691 sounds about right. Also, according to Wiki, they had 639 College stores. I doubt they've opened another 52 College stores in the past year, while closing retail stores. I was just always under the impression that BN was a much larger behemoth than this, particularly for all the whining the Indies gave just a decade ago. For instance, worldwide, Walmart operates 8,970 stores.

Oh, and by the way, the poorly written article was sourced from the Associated Press, if you had bothered to read the very first line

[Prestidigitweeze]

I was about to post the Gizmodo version before noticing a certain thread had been started already.

[Rob Lister]

Originally Posted by MovieBird

Oh, and by the way, the poorly written article was sourced from the Associated Press, if you had bothered to read the very first line

Whatever the source, it was poorly written.

As to the number of stores, I donno. Wiki sez

The company operates 705 stores (as of April 30, 2011) in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia in addition to 636 college bookstores that serve more than 4.6 million students and faculty members across the country

[fjtorres]

From the Tech world:
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/microsoft/...col;subStories

Sounds like a Metro Nook might be incoming:

3. Microsoft execs have been playing up in recent public appearances the pending availability of some kind of a dedicated Metro-based e-reader. This has seemed odd to a number of us Microsoft watchers, given the official Microsoft stance that Windows 8 tablets running a Kindle and/or Nook application would be just as good an e-reader as a dedicated device. Now, given today’s NewCo announcement, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a Windows 8-based Nook reader.

(Here’s some background on this, according to one source: One of my contacts had told me a while back that Microsoft was working on an e-reader with B&N. The plan supposedly was that Microsoft would build the e-reader and B&N, the bookstore. Supposedly, my contact said, B&N dropped out, and shortly thereafter, Microsoft was working on the Courier, which could double as both a notetaking and reading device.)

Microsoft and B&N are holding a press conference this morning (8:30 am ET) and I’ll update this story with more if and when there’s more to say….

Given B&N's lack of success getting the Nook app store populated, switching to Win8Arm is not out of the question.
Other possibilities for a MetroNook: Zune music and video support to counter Amazon's media stores (Zune has music *subscriptions*), XBOX Live links and Arcade Games...

Hmm, the more I think of it, the more sense the tie-up makes.
Especially with the College Bookstores to showcase the MetroNook.

[MovieBird]

Originally Posted by Rob Lister

As to the number of stores, I donno. Wiki sez

Ah, I see your confusion now. Look at the side panel in Wiki. Retail stores and College stores are counted separately, as I alluded to in the above post.

[Shack70]

So when will we see a Nook Tablet running Windows instead of Andriod?