Barnes & Noble has paid Pearson $27.7 million in cash and stock to buy back its stake in the company’s Nook e-reader business, giving the bookseller chain full control over the Nook once again.
The deal comes almost 3 weeks after Microsoft sold back its stake in the Nook business for a $185 million loss. The success of those transactions means that Barnes & Noble can now go ahead with its plans of spinning the Nook out into a separate public company.
The Nook business is supposed to be a rival to Amazon’s own Kindle line of e-readers, but Barnes & Noble has had a hard time competing with the Seattle-based tech titan in that arena. Earlier this year, the Nook business underwent significant layoffs, including much of its hardware team. In August, B&N released the Galaxy Tab 4 Nook, a tablet that’s co-branded with Samsung.
