M+E Daily
Barnes & Noble’s ‘Newco’ Gets a New Name
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The joint venture between Barnes & Noble and Microsoft has been christened Nook Media, LLC, the companies announced Thursday. The venture, originally dubbed Newco, was following a $300 million investment by Microsoft in the booksellers, Nook ebook division. According to Thursday’s announcement, the unit will focus on bringing digital reading and educational content to B&N’s Nook e-reader and other digital devices and platforms, including “the imminent launch” of a Nook reading app for Windows 8.
Microsoft will own approximately 18 percent of the joint venture and B&N will own the rest. Barnes & Noble recently undertook a “review of its strategic options,” including the possibility of spinning off its Nook unit into a standalone company. On Thursday the bookseller said no decision had been reached on that question and offered no timetable for the completion of the review.
Whether Nook Media will ultimately provide more than ebooks remains an open question. Microsoft’s investment in the venture sparked speculation at the time that a Win 8-based Nook e-reader was in the works, and that B&N’s ebook store would be integrated with Microsoft’s Xbox Live Marketplace. Neither of those steps appear imminent, however, assuming they were ever part of the plan.
Barnes & Noble recently launched the Nook Video service, however, which appeared to carry Microsoft’s fingerprints. The studios making their movies and TV shows available on Nook Video are the same ones that offer their content through Xbox Live, and Nook Video includes native support for UltraViolet, as one would expect from a Microsoft-designed video service given Redmond’s heavy lifting to get UV up and running.
