Microsoft Deal Kills Barnes & Noble

Dr. Roy Schestowitz

2013-07-13 16:22:56 UTC
Modified: 2013-07-13 16:22:56 UTC

Barnes and Noble

Summary: Barnes & Noble loses its CEO who rendered the company just another Microsoft prey

THE CEO of B & N quits after he agreed to be a puppy of Ballmer in exchange for a little bribe, turning the company from a Microsoft challenger into some kind of strange proxy like Novell. Let's look at some of the latest developments

A few weeks ago we started to mention how B & N had collapsed. Taking a bribe from Microsoft rather than suing Microsoft wasn't a smart move and the CEO of B & N quits now. How could he be so gullible? Has he not seen that dead path of companies at the entrance of Microsoft's cave? Anyway, he is out now. Pamela Jones writes: "That isn't how I view it. I view it that Microsoft is killing off anyone selling Android/Linux whenever possible, whether by partnerships (Nokia) or investments or litigation. The Nook was doing great until Microsoft entered the picture by trying to force Barnes & Noble to pay royalties allegedly owed for running Linux on the Nook. None of the patents were needed by Barnes & Noble, according to them, and next thing we hear is Microsoft has settled the case against it and will invest in Barnes & Noble, and next we see this."

Here is a later report with some numbers:

Not long after Microsoft’s investment, though, Nook sales began to decline precipitously. In the most recent quarter, Nook revenues fell 34 percent, and were down 16.8 percent for the year. It’s unclear why anybody would want to buy Nook Media outright now; there were rumors that Microsoft might do so, but months have passed without an offer (if it were interested, Microsoft could get a pretty good deal right about now).

We already called for a boycott of B & N, following those iffy moves that made the company more dangerous than beneficial to Android and Free software in general. Jones added : "If the point was to kill off another Android vendor, what would be the point of buying the company?"

A shame really. B & N ended up like Novell, which BN (Boycott Novell) saw turning into a Microsoft proxy following a horrible deal. ⬆

Projection Tactics - Part IV: SLAPP by Americans Against Techrights (UK) to Hide Serious Abuses Against American Women: "PRs need to stop being complicit in suppression of information via SLAPPs"
The Grapevine Says IBM's American RAs (Mass Layoffs) Soon to Follow European RAs, PIPs and "Reviews" as Pretext for a Likely Baseless Dismissal: The days of honourable corporations and work ethics are long gone it seems...
Links 23/01/2026: Growing Censorship, Intel Falls (Another Bubble, Propped Up by Cheeto Bailout), and Huge GAFAM Layoffs Continue: Links for the day
Judge Richard Oulevey (Grandcour Choeur, Tribunal Vaud) & Debian shaming abuse victims and witnesses: Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Judgment: French army vanquishes German FSFE on Hitler's birthday, Microsoft contract dispute (1716711): Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
EDPB/CNIL privacy expert Amandine Jambert (cryptie, FSFE) implicitly admitted lying about harassment when she resigned admitting conflict of interest: Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 24/01/2026: TikTok Controlled by Alt Reich in US Now, White House Shares Fake, Manipulated, Misleading Images Already: Links for the day
Dirty Laundry at Debian and Elsewhere: We cannot just brush aside real issues involving real people and their families
Illegal, Unconstitutional Kangaroo Court for Patents Drops the Masks, Shows Its Real Purpose is to Serve Multinational Monopolists and Crush European SMEs: Europe (or the EU) is rapidly becoming a corporate project, not a unified governance initiative
The "Alicante Mafia" - Part X - EPO Strikes to Begin Next Week: Things gradually escalate this month
Gemini Links 24/01/2026: Snow, Boxing, and Lisp is Fun: Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...: GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, January 23, 2026: IRC logs for Friday, January 23, 2026
Senior management and HR email privacy: Martin Ebnoether (venty), Axel Beckert (xtaran) & Debian abuse in Switzerland: Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Pierre-Elliott Bécue, ANSSI & Debian cybertorture: Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
MJ Ray, Micah Anderson & Debian on drugs, prostitution at DebConf6 fight: Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Excellence in Ethics: a list of victories for the truth: Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Richard Stallman Giving Public Talk, Answering Questions From the Audience: We understand (from the organisers) that there will be a video of the talk
Forbes Covers in 2026 What Was Already Clear for Over a Decade: Microsoft's BitLocker 'Encryption' is a Back Door: One that's promoted by the loudest boosters of UEFI 'secure boot' as well
Links 23/01/2026: Minus 24 deg C in South Korea, "Iran Internet Blackout Passes Two-Week Mark": Links for the day
Gemini Links 23/01/2026: "Witch Watch" and English on the Net: Links for the day
Reminder That "Linux" in the Site's Name (and Domain) Does Not Imply Authentic Journalism About GNU/Linux: the sad fact that some once-legitimate sites became slopfarms
Further Comments Illuminate Observations Regarding IBM's Layoffs (RAs) Plan for Europe: Some shed light on the expected scale
Working for Freedom Makes You a Target: it's not about what you do but about who gets served
Appeasing Bullies Doesn't Work: The reason we're still here and very active is that we're good at what we do
Claim That IBM Mass Layoffs Began Again in Europe, With Rumours It'll Close Offices: Unless IBM issues a statement (admission) to the media or issues WARN notices (in the US), the lousy media will simply assume - however wrongly - that nothing is happening and there's nothing to report
How Microsoft Will Tell Shareholders That the Business is Failing in a Few Days: It'll resort to "AI" storytelling (lying about slop having potential for some unspecified future year)
Flying to See Today's Talk by Richard Stallman: It's probably not too late to reserve a seat for today's talk
The Fall of Freenode Didn't Kill IRC and the Web's Issues (Not Limited to LLM Slop) Didn't Kill Everything: As long as there are enough people willing to keep the simple (or "old") stuff it'll refuse to die
GAFAM Layoffs by Performance Improvement Plans (PIPs) Hide the Real Scale of Their Financial Troubles: the "official" numbers of layoffs will never tell the true story
'Domesticated' Animals Not More Valuable Than Free-range Wildlife, Proprietary ('Commercial') Software Isn't Better Than Free Software: the proprietary software giants (companies like SAP or Microsoft) have a lot of lobbyists
The "Alicante Mafia" - Part IX - EPO Budget Funnelled Into Cocaine and Moreover Rewards Cocaine-Addicted Management for Getting Busted by Police: Any day that passes without European media and European politicians doing anything about it merely discredits the media and the EU (or national governments)
Richard Stallman Won't Talk About "AI", He'll Talk About Chatbots and LLMs Lacking Any Intelligence: This really irritates people who dislike the message; so they attack the person
Slopfarms Still Fed by Google, Boosting Fake 'Articles' That Pretend to Cover "Linux": At this point about 80-90% of the search results appear not to be slopfarms
Gemini Links 23/01/2026: The Danish Approach to Deepfakes and Random vi Things: Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...: GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, January 22, 2026: IRC logs for Thursday, January 22, 2026
Five Years Ago, After We Broke the Story About Richard Stallman Rejoining the FSF's Board, All Hell Broke Loose (for Me and My Family): They generally seem to target anyone who thinks Richard Stallman (RMS) should be in charge or thinks alike about computing
Links 22/01/2026: Slop Fantasy About Patents, Retirement in China Now Reached at Age Seventy: Links for the day
Gemini Links 22/01/2026: Why Europe Does Not Need GAFAMs, XScreenSaver Tinkering, FlatCube: Links for the day
Salvadorans' Usage of GNU/Linux Measured at Record Levels: All-time high
Links 22/01/2026: Ubisoft Layoffs Disguised as "RTO", US "Congress Wants To Hand Your Parenting To GAFAM", Americans' Image Tarnished Among Canadians (Now Planning to "Repel US Invasion"): Links for the day
10 Easy Steps to Follow for Digital Sovereignty in Nations That Distrust GAFAM et al: When "enough is enough"
No, the Problem at IBM/Red Hat Isn't Diversity: Microsoft Lunduke also openly shows his admiration for Pedo Cheeto
Do Not Link to Linuxiac Anymore, Linuxiac Became a Slopfarm: now Linuxiac is slop
Dr. Andy Farnell Explains Why Slop Companies Like Anthropic and Microsoft 'Open' 'AI' Basically Plunder and Rob People: This article was published last night at around 10
Richard Stallman (RMS) at Georgia Tech Tomorrow: After the talk we'll write a lot about "cancel culture" and online mobs fostered and emboldened in social control media
Software Patents by Any Other Name: There is no such thing as "AI" patents
Over at Tux Machines...: GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, January 21, 2026: IRC logs for Wednesday, January 21, 2026
The "Alicante Mafia" - Part VIII - Salary Cuts to Staff, 100,000 Euros to Managers Busted Using Cocaine (for Doing Absolutely Nothing, Just Pretending to be "Sick"): Today we look at slides from the union
Gemini Links 22/01/2026: Forest Monk, Aurora Observation, and Arduino Officially Launches the More Powerful Arduino UNO Q 4GB Single-Board Computer: Links for the day
Next Week is Close Enough for Wall Street Storytelling About 'Efficiency' by Layoffs for "AI": This coming week GAFAM and others will tell some creative tales about how "AI" something something...
Google News Still a Feeder of Slop About "Linux", Which Became Rarer in 2026: Our main concern these days is what happened to Linuxiac. Bobby Borisov became a chatbots addict.

Microsoft Deal Kills Barnes & Noble

Recent Techrights' Posts