[Tomk2]

Rumor has it that Daunt has said that the Nook can remain as long as it "keeps pace" with the Kindle. Daunt is a bookseller, who revamps book stores to make them profitable. In his UK stores, he had a stint selling Kindles. He has been reported as saying that he has no interest in selling someone else's devices.

So who knows? It would seem Daunt has no particular interest one way or the other in the Nook or ebooks, so Nook may sputter along as long as it doesn't cause any aggravation. But being a division in a corporation that is deemed unessential does not seem like job security. The bugger about privately held companies is that they can be very opaque to the inquisitive.

Personally, I have a dozen or so books trapped in the B&N ecosystem because I did not download them while I had a chance. I am unlikely to switch back to Nook, so the only interest I have is that I might be able to recover those books if B&N transfers the services to someone else.