There's also an article going around where Amazon tried a test program where they gave paid in full Prime members a
free Kindle. Supposedly you also had the option of getting a refund and keeping the Kindle if you didn't like Prime.
http://www.minyanville.com/dailyfeed...ndles-be-free/
It's a bit premature to say this is why B&N would act now on this, it's much more likely due to the iPad2.