The easy money days of the early dot com boom are but a distant memory for many of us, but this does not mean that there is no more money left in the tech market. In fact, we have just received word that Microsoft is preparing to fork out up to a cool $1 billion in order to purchase the digital assets of Nook Media LLC, which so happens to be the digital book and college book joint venture with Barnes & Noble alongside other investors. This bit of information is not yet official, but was based off internal documents that TechCrunch picked up. Should all go well with this particular plan, Microsoft would most probably redeem preferred units in Nook Media, where it would also include a college textbook division, and that translates to them having the digital operation that comprises of e-books, Nook e-readers and tablets to play around with.
These documents also allegedly point to Nook Media’s plans to discontinue its Android-based tablet business before the 2014 fiscal year is over, as it makes a move to a business model where Nook content will be distributed via apps on “third-party partner” devices. This leads to speculation concerning the discontinuation of the Nook, but it remains to be seen whether such third-party tablets would be Microsoft’s very own collection of Windows 8 devices and tablets made by other manufacturers. I guess we will have to be patient to see everything else roll into place, no?