Barnes & Noble and Microsoft today revealed the newest formation of the Barnes & Noble subsidiary that is going to be focused around the current Nook digital e-reader and e-book business aswell, and last but not least the Barnes & Noble college business. Microsoft is investing $300 million in this subsidiary too, which is the preliminary being that is called Newco until an official name is picked out, and receive 17.6% ownership officially for the business.

One of the first benefits for customers will be a NOOK application for Windows 8, which will extend the reach of Barnes & Noble’s digital bookstore by providing one of the world’s largest digital catalogues of e-Books, magazines and newspapers to hundreds of millions of Windows customers in the U.S. and internationally.

The inclusion of Barnes & Noble’s College business is an important component of Newco’s strategic vision. Through the newly formed Newco, Barnes & Noble’s industry leading NOOK Study software will provide students and educators the preeminent technology platform for the distribution and management of digital education materials in the market.

A condition for the deal, for Microsoft and Barns & Noble has settled their patent dispute aswell, which was seen as Microsoft suing for the infringement by the Nook reader that would be a move for Barnes & Noble had positioned their own attack on Android based systems. The most recent deal will be seeing Barnes & Noble and also Newco having a royalty-bearing license in their possession, while Microsoft’s patents are still in question.

The Barns & Noble/Microsoft tale continues as they both look for a way to move up their competition in the e-book market alone, which takes on both Amazon’s current lead in the market and Apple’s recent investment into the market which the iPad is now a popular tablet for the e-reading option for all consumers though it is taking steps slowly into content for the iBookstore. The Nook has been someone successful by Barnes & Noble aswell, though the momentum has slowed just recently and the most recent antitrust suit directly against Apple and other book publishers is pushing down the newest agency model for the distribution of e-books and it also raises concerns for the industry that quickly returns to a pretty close kind of monopoly for Amazon.

Via Macrumors

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