Barnes & Noble, Inc. (BKS)

[Leirum]

The rumours are now, that AMAZON could target as well Nook.
If Amazon were to purchase Nook Media, it would gain a valuable brick-and-mortar partner in Barnes & Noble, turning a former adversary into an ally. Amazon could possibly use Barnes & Noble locations as fulfillment and local pick-up centers for online purchases. Barnes & Noble could in turn help launch physical versions of Amazon’s self-published digital offerings, which have experienced lackluster sales. Most importantly, Amazon could phase out the Nook and replace it with its Kindle devices, which would make it the undisputed king of the e-reader market with access to books from both Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

Conclusion: Microsoft as one of the largest shareholders in the NOOK project would have to move fast. Will be fun the to see - how this works out.
The good thing is, the shorts were wrong and get killed and most of the Wallstreet analysts did not see the picture either, as always we could say.