Microsoft has offered to pay $1 billion to buy the digital portions of Nook Media LLC, according to a report from TechCrunch Thursday. TechCrunch claims to have seen internal documents that suggest Microsoft wants to get its hands on the rest of the digital book business and that Nook Media plans to fade out its Android-based tablets by the end of 2014.
Microsoft bought a 17.6 percent stake in Nook for $300 million almost exactly a year ago, when the digital Nook division split off from Barnes and Noble proper, resulting in a Nook app for Windows 8. Since then, British publishing company Pearson has purchased a 5 percent stake for $89.5 million.
Microsoft appears to want the whole division to itself, though for around $700 million less than the valuation at which it bought into the company ($1.7 billion, last April). Since Microsoft bought in, Barnes and Noble released new Nooks that failed to sell well over the holidays and have since been discounted.
Barnes and Noble also recently added the full Google Play store to its newer Nook HD and HD+ units. But if the company plans to sell and/or discontinue its tablets altogether, the appearance of the play store may not be the beacon of hope it at first seemed to be.
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