Is This Microsoft's Dumbest Move Yet?
The following video is from Friday's installment of the Motley Fool's Weekly Tech Review, in which host Chris Hill and analysts Eric Bleeker and Jason Moser look at the biggest stories driving the tech sector this week.
Microsoft made a $300 million investment last year in Barnes & Noble , focusing primarily on the company's e-reader business. However, Microsoft's investment came at a time when there were already troubling signs for e-readers, such as how they would compete as tablet prices were being slashed. As an example, Apple has managed to take 20% of the e-book market without making iBooks a priority. Likewise, Amazon.com has long been a more entrenched competitor and used the Kindle to head-off the Nook positioning itself as the more "tablet-y" of the companies operating from a strength in e-readers.
The end result is that Barnes & Noble's Nook e-reader has been fading as more multi-purpose tablets have come to dominate this space. Nook posted a $262 million loss in fiscal 2012 and a $475 million loss in fiscal 2013. As of this week, the company announced it was getting out of Nook hardware, casting doubt over the future of Nook as a platform. While the Nook might not be Microsoft's biggest failed bet -- the company recently wrote down $6.2 billion in value from aQuantive -- it also seemed like one of Microsoft's more short-sighted moves that was devoid of a great strategic aim.
In the following video, Eric and Jason talk about Microsoft's investment in the Nook and the company's overall acquisition strategy headed forward.
The full video is available here.
In the past, most tech companies specialized in particular niches, but recently, the largest players have gotten into a trillion-dollar turf battle with the future of the entire industry at stake. Microsoft now finds itself in battle with not only Apple, but also with companies such as Amazon, which previously weren't on its radar. Find out which company we believe will emerge victorious in this all-out corporate war by reading the Fool's latest research report. It's absolutely free, so get your copy today by clicking right here.
The relevant video segment can be found between 7:58 and 12:20.
The article Is This Microsoft's Dumbest Move Yet? originally appeared on Fool.com.
Chris Hill and Jason Moser owns shares of Amazon.com.Eric Bleeker, CFA, has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends and owns shares of Amazon.com, Apple, and Microsoft. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools don't all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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