14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has decided to give up on the partnership it had with Barnes & Noble after approximately two years of collaboration and almost no significant project created as part of the deal.
Redmond and Barnes & Noble officially joined forces in 2012, announcing at that time that both companies would work together as a single entity called Newco on several projects, including a Windows 8 application to give users access to eBooks on their PCs and tablets.
Microsoft also invested a total of $300 million (€210 million) as part of the deal, but once the partnership is completely terminated, the software giant will get its money back, as Barnes & Noble wants “to acquire its entire preferred interest in Nook Media LLC.”
Windows 8 app development halted this year
The collaboration between Barnes & Noble and Microsoft didn’t go very well, and despite their efforts, interest in Windows 8 apps that could enhance content for Nook e-readers failed to grow.
This year in March, the two companies agreed to stop development of a Nook app for Windows 8, explaining that all resources would actually be used for different projects.
That was the moment when everyone started speculating, with some people suggesting that Microsoft was working on its own e-reader, so spending money on the Nook wasn’t the best thing for a company looking to debut on this particular market.
This wasn’t the case, however, and soon after that, an SEC filling revealed that Microsoft actually wanted to create an e-reading app that was supposed to work on all modern platforms, including Xbox and Windows Phone and based on content provided by Barnes & Noble.
Agreement signed during the Steve Ballmer era
The deal between Microsoft and Barnes & Noble was formed only a few months before Windows 8 came to be, with Steve Ballmer, currently just a Microsoft shareholder and owner of NBA team LA Clippers, at the helm of the software giant.
Ballmer is one of the Microsoft executives who invested heavily in Windows 8, and the deal with Barnes & Noble was part of his attempt to make the operating system a bit more successful by bringing more companies and partners together for the creation of exciting projects based on this particular operating system.
All these plans more or less failed to reach their purpose, and since February this year, Steve Ballmer is no longer the Microsoft CEO, as he was replaced by Satya Nadella at the helm of the company. Ballmer also stepped down as Microsoft board member, deciding to focus entirely on his basketball team rather than on Microsoft’s business.
