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Barnes & Noble, Microsoft end Nook partnership

A Barnes & Noble Nook Color eReader, left, is shown next to a Nook Simple Touch eReader on display at a Best Buy in Mountain View, Calif.
(Paul Sakuma / Associated Press)
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Barnes & Noble and Microsoft are “consciously uncoupling” to the tune of about $125 million in cash and stock.

More than 2-1/2 years after entering into a “strategic partnership,” the two companies have ended their agreement over the struggling Nook e-reader.

The nation’s largest bookstore chain is buying back Microsoft’s stake for $62.4 million and about 2.7 million Barnes & Noble shares, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings released Thursday. The announcement came as the bookseller reported a 2.7% drop in revenue for the fiscal quarter ending Nov. 1.

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Thursday’s announcement marks the next move in the bookstore’s plan to to spin off its Nook business as a separate public company.

The New York-based bookstore chain’s Nook segment posted $64 million in revenue for the quarter, a drop of about 41% from this time last year. Digital content sales fell nearly 21% compared to a year ago, to $45 million. Barnes & Noble shares were down 13% in early morning trading.

Barnes & Noble launched the Nook in an effort to compete in a market dominated by Amazon’s Kindle. Washington state-based Microsoft invested $300 million for a 17.6% stake in the e-reader in April 2012.

“As the respective business strategies of each company evolved, we mutually agreed that it made sense to terminate the agreement,” Microsoft said in a statement.

The bookseller said it expects to separate its Nook business by August.

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