Microsoft's Nook Deal, Aiming at Amazon, Sets Up Battle in E-Books - NYTimes.com

Another perspective on MSFT/BKS/"Newco"

"Microsoft has been forced to radically reimagine Windows, its flagship software franchise, for a future in which much Web browsing, movie watching, book reading and other activities occur on tablets.
This puts it squarely up against Amazon, with its popular Kindle devices, and Apple, which has had runaway success with its iPad. Google, too, has been scrambling to build up its own service with an expansion of its Google Play store.
The deal is “clearly motivated by Apple and Amazon as relatively unstoppable forces, each in their own domain,” said James McQuivey, an analyst at Forrester Research."

Microsoft's Nook Deal, Aiming at Amazon, Sets Up Battle in E-Books - NYTimes.com