US textbooks will be the new digital battlefield

Richard Blackden:

It was immediately christened a win-win deal. Win-win is one of corporate America's less irritating phrases and, in this case, an accurate description of Microsoft's $300m (£186m) tie-up with US bookseller Barnes & Noble.

If you missed it, the deal will see the two companies create a new venture that will own the Nook, the digital reading device that Barnes & Noble introduced in 2009 to compete with Amazon's Kindle. Coming a year after Microsoft paid an eye-watering $8.5bn for the online video chat service Skype, this week's piece of business is the latest attempt by the world's largest software maker to secure a foothold in the rapidly-changing market for e-readers and tablet computers.
The agreement gives Microsoft an 18pc stake in the Nook. Unknown in Britain, the ereader has amassed a 30pc stake in the US market with far less financial muscle than Amazon. It is no surprise the tie-up has produced fevered speculation that the best engineering and design brains at Microsoft and Barnes & Noble will now combine to produce a brand new tablet to take on Amazon and Apple.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at May 7, 2012 5:34 AM
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