

Barnes and Noble and Microsoft End Nook Partnership - dnetesn
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/05/business/media/barnes-noble-ends-partnership-with-microsoft-over-nook.html?ref=technology

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Someone1234
I never understood and still don't understand this partnership.

So B&N has retail stores and Nook. Nook pre-Microsoft was Android based. They
already had a Nook app coming out for Windows 8/RT. So when Microsoft invested
a ton of money what was the ROI? Were they hoping to ship Nook devices with
Windows RT on it? Or was there some other end-game?

300m is a lot of money and I don't understand what the pay off was even meant
to be here.

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super_sloth
That's because this was never about Microsoft investing in the Nook.

Microsoft's investment was really just a settlement with Barnes and Noble in
everything other than name.

Microsoft sued B&N
([http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12814018](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12814018))
for infringing on the patents it's been collecting royalties from Android
manufacturers for. B&N then counter-sued
([http://www.phonearena.com/news/Barnes---Noble-countersues-
Mi...](http://www.phonearena.com/news/Barnes---Noble-countersues-Microsoft-
over-Nook-Color-patents_id18532)).

Once Microsoft invested in the Nook business, the whole thing got dropped.
Makes you wonder if Microsoft were concerned that B&N actually putting up a
fight might bring the whole of their lucrative Android licensing business in
jeopardy.

~~~
CapitalistCartr
Also, Microsoft worries about Google, Android, Amazon cutting into their
business. Like most large corporations, some investments are defensive. If
Nook had gone better, it might have given MS a toehold in that camp.

~~~
kyllo
Yeah, I always saw it as a strategic "me too" product investment in response
to Amazon Kindle.

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gdilla
This never made sense. It may have been interesting if Microsoft had leveraged
the B&N physical real estate to let users play with their new hardware, eg
Surfaces, but that never happened. Nook continued to be the oft forgotten
Android based ecosystem it always was.

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shmerl
So will now MS require B&N to pay for patents again?

~~~
rbanffy
Well... The patent list they use to extort Android makers is not a secret
anymore, so there is no way B&N could threaten Microsoft with that.

But I guess they now enjoy a perpetual license to those patents anyway.

~~~
shmerl
While it's public, I didn't see any news about anymeone trying to bust those
patents so far.

~~~
rbanffy
We also don't see many new licensees.

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megatroll
Interesting turn of events. I wonder how this will affect the e-reader
industry.

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tn13
Barnes and Noble should ideally end the entire Nook business as well. Every
month I spend around $50 buying books at a physical B&N. I am just happy to
buy their books on a standard Android App. Not sure what purpose the e-reader
serves.

~~~
brandonmenc
> Not sure what purpose the e-reader serves.

Carrying around hundreds of books is the obvious killer feature.

~~~
rbanffy
> Carrying around hundreds of books is the obvious killer feature.

Better indexing and search would be the killer killer feature.

I carry about a hundred books and about that many magazines (in PDF). Being
able to search through that stack would increase my perceived IQ by a hundred
points.

