Friday, March 06, 2009

Barnes & Noble Stumbles Into EBook

Barnes & Nobles (BKS) announced the purchase/acquisition of Fictionwise an eBook marketing service. Barnes & Noble did announce the purchase price $15.7 million but did not provide much if any information on earn out formula’s.

The idea is to get into the eBook business and compete with Amazon (AMZN) and Google (GOOG). OK you have to understand the strategy but you also have to understand that eBook reading devices have been under development for quite some time.

Sony and Kindle have their offerings available right now. Amazon has a strong brand in the book business. Google has a lot of money. Q3 cash position for Barnes & Noble was south of $20 million.