The Web site Insider Monkey posted a story Monday, quoting a “highly placed source inside Microsoft” saying that the company has no plans to buy Barnes & Noble’s Nook Media group. Last week, citing documents it said it had seen, TechCrunch reported that Microsoft was prepared to offer $1 billion to buy Nook Media and that B&N would phase out the sale of Nook devices.
B&N and Microsoft, which has a stake in Nook Media, both declined to comment at the time but Insider Monkey said it source said the deal “was nothing more than a rumor. Microsoft will not come out and deny or confirm for legal reasons, but the company has no intention of acquiring the NOOK unit. NOOK is closely integrated with Android (hence their recent Google Play feature) and there is no way it could be ported to Windows 8." The employee added "The acquisition is not happening in the foreseeable future as Microsoft is assessing its options at this time."
