Microsoft and Barnes & Noble enter ebook partnership

Microsoft has invested $300m (£185m) in new partnership with US bookseller Barnes & Noble.

The deal could see the Nook platform integrated into Windows 8 when it launches later this year. The new company, which has been given the temporary name Newco, will see Microsoft own 17.6 per cent with Barnes & Noble taking the other 82.4 per cent.

The new joint venture will include the bookseller's digital publishing and college businesses of Barnes & Noble. One of the first products from the new company will be a Nook application developed for Windows 8.

William Lynch, CEO of Barnes & Noble, said that the partnership will help attract more customers.

"Microsoft's investment in Newco, and our exciting collaboration to bring world-class digital reading technologies and content to the Windows platform and its hundreds of millions of users, will allow us to significantly expand the business," he said.

"The shift to digital is putting the world's libraries and newsstands in the palm of every person's hand, and is the beginning of a journey that will impact how people read, interact with, and enjoy new forms of content," said Andy Lees, President at Microsoft.

Barnes & Noble makes the Nook ebook reader, a competitor to Amazon's Kindle in the US. The Nook isn't yet available in the UK, but the company has said that it wants to bring the device to customers outside the US.