APPLE AND AMAZON SHOULD REJOICE AS MICROSOFT MORBIDLY EMBRACES NOOK $MSFT $AAPL $GOOG $AMZN $BKS
TechCrunch reports that Microsoft MSFT may spend $1 billion to buy Nook outright from Barnes & Noble NE. In the pre-market Barnes & Noble stock moved up as much as 30% and was still higher by nearly 20% on the day in the afternoon. Microsoft has an existing investment in Nook of about one-sixth of the enterprise. Barnes & Noble has done an incredible job with Nook even though it is nowhere near as popular as the Kindle lineup from Amazon or iPads from Apple AAPL. Amazon started as a book seller. No wonder it is the leader in the eReader market with its Kindle line of devices.