Pearson, the parent company of Penguin Publishing, has completed the financial investment in Barnes and Noble’s Nook Media today. The total amount was 89.9 million dollars and it should help the ailing bookstore to compete harder in the digital space.
Pearson now has a 5% stake in Nook Media, while Microsoft (with its 300 million dollar investment last year) nets 16.8%. Barnes and Noble has 78.2% of the digital division and sources close to the situation say the company has not finished looking for possible suitors yet.
Last year, Barnes and Noble started building a separation between the retail bookstore chain and the digital division. Digital sales have increased over 70% in 2012 from the year prior and the company recently expanded into the United Kingdom, to facilitate further growth. The CEO of B&N promised last year that the company would expand into numerous markets, but it has not occurred yet. The Pearson investment into the Nook division will allow the company to expand into further European markets. A source within the company has told us that Germany, Spain, France, and the Netherlands are the next logical countries to open up shop.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
