Publishing company Pearson’s $89.5 million cash investment in Barnes & Noble’s NOOK Media has been completed. Barnes & Noble announced the investment last month. With the investment, Nook Media is now valued at about $1.789 billion, and Pearson maintains a 5 percent equity stake in the business.

Here is more from the press release: “Following the closing of the transaction, Barnes & Noble now owns approximately 78.2% of the NOOK Media subsidiary and Microsoft, which also holds preferred membership interests, owns approximately 16.8%. Subject to certain conditions, Pearson will earn the option to purchase up to an additional five percent ownership in NOOK Media.”

“We look forward to working with Pearson, a valued partner of ours for many years, in developing new ways to improve and enhance digital learning for students,” stated William Lynch, CEO of Barnes & Noble.

Nook segment sales at Barnes & Noble fell 12.6% over the nine-week holiday season compared to the same period last year.

At the same time, the company saw sales rise 13.1 percent in digital books, digital newsstand, and the apps business revenues.

CEO William Lynch had this statement: “We entered the holiday with two great new products, NOOK HD and NOOK HD+, both  highly rated media tablets of phenomenal quality … NOOK device sales got off to a good start over the Black Friday period, but then fell short of expectations for the balance of holiday.   We are examining the root cause of the December shortfall in sales, and will adjust our strategies accordingly going forward.”

Publishing company Pearson has agreed to invest $89.5 million in cash in Barnes & Noble’s digital content company Nook Media. Nook Media is currently valued at about $1.789 billion, which gives Pearson a 5 percent equity stake in the business. Pearson brings expertise in online learning and digital content to the table.

Here is more from a Barnes & Noble press release: “Following the closing of the transaction, Barnes & Noble will now own approximately 78.2% of the Nook Media subsidiary and Microsoft, which also holds preferred membership interests, will own approximately 16.8%. Subject to certain conditions, Pearson will earn the option to purchase up to an additional five percent ownership in Nook Media.”

“We formed Nook Media to be a leader in the exploding market for digital content,” explained William Lynch, CEO of Barnes & Noble, in a statement.  ”Pearson is a forward thinking company similarly focused on reading and learning, with powerful assets and a terrific management team.  We welcome their partnership in Nook Media, and look forward to working with them and Microsoft to deliver great digital experiences for our shared customers.”

Barnes & Noble wants you to buy eBooks this year, so much so that the retailer is offering a pretty sweet deal on select eBooks this weekend.

If you buy an eBook for yourself, you’ll get a free digital copy of the title to gift to your friend. The deal is in-store only.

Check it out: “Customers can purchase one qualifying NOOK Book from a list of 20 bestselling titles – ranging from The Hobbit toThe Life of Pi – and then select a title from that list to instantly gift to a recipient of their choice at no cost.” The deal is good through December 24th.

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In a move to drive sales of its Nook devices, Barnes & Noble is running a charity-related promotion this holiday season called “Buy a Nook, We’ll Give a Book.”

For every Nook purchased between now and December 25th, the company will donate one new print book to First Book, a non-profit that gives new books to children in need.

Holiday book drives is nothing new for the book retailer. For the past 20 years, the bookseller’s Holiday Book Drive has collected and distributed more than a million books a year, which have been distributed to thousands of charities around the country. Last year, Barnes & Noble customers and booksellers donated more than 1.2 million books which were shared with more than 2,000 local charities.

Charity aside, Barnes & Noble is also giving $20 B&N gift cards to customers who buy a Nook HD with a MasterCard.

Barnes & Noble’s Nook business, which includes devices, digital content and accessories, had revenues of $160 million for the second quarter in 2012, up 6% as compared to a year ago. Overall Barnes & Noble’s second quarter consolidated revenues were $1.9 billion, down 0.4% over the same time period last year.

According to the company’s quarterly earnings report, digital content sales, which includes eBooks, digital newsstand content and apps, increased 38 percent as compared to the same quarter last year. The quarter’s sales figures do not include sales of the latest Nook devices, as Barnes & Noble pointed out that the company began shipping these products after the close of the company’s fiscal second quarter.

Barnes & Noble executives expect digital sales to continue to grow. William Lynch, the company’s CEO stated, “We expect our two highly acclaimed new NOOK products, and our Microsoft partnership on Windows 8 to further fuel the growth of our digital business, and are encouraged by the promising start to the holidays in our retail and digital businesses.”

Barnes & Noble has introduced Nook apps for Android and iOS devices in the U.K. British consumers can download these apps on various different devices to access and shop the Nook store. Like on their apps in the U.S., the apps in the U.K. will let customers sync purchases, bookmarks and notes across devices.

Jamie Iannone, president of Nook Media LLC, explained that B&N’s reading apps have been downloaded “millions of times in the US,” in a statement.

Barnes & Noble  launched its Nook business in the U.K. in October. The book retailer sells its devices through the storefront www.nook.co.uk. The store will also sells eBooks, apps and digital magazines and newspapers with a catalog of more than 2.5 million titles. The company also sells its devices at leading retailers in the UK.

If you are going to buy an eReader this holiday season, Barnes & Noble has a deal that is worth checking out. The retailer is selling the Nook Simple Touch, its basic no-frills eReader for $59 on Black Friday. The 6-inch E Ink touchscreen device is normally $99.

Bad news for Internet shoppers, the Nook deal is only good in stores. And the deal is only good while supplies last.

But the company has lots of other Black Friday deals in stores and online, including sales on eReader and tablet covers, as well as cheap books, DVDs, calendars and Moleskine products. And if you spend $75 on a Barnes & Noble gift card on Friday, you’ll get a free $10 gift card.

If you are shopping for a tablet this holiday season, check out our list of the 5 best tablets to give this holiday season.

The holiday shopping season is here and a whole new selection of tablets are available for sale this year. To help promote the Nook HD tablet to customers who also have the choice of iPad Minis, Kindle Fire HDs among other devices, Barnes & Noble has created a television ad.

The ad targets families and highlights the fact that a family can share one tablet among different family members. B&N worked with its ad agency Mullen on the effort. We’ve embedded the video above for your viewing pleasure.

Barnes & Noble hasn’t given a specific date for when they plan to release Nook Video app and start selling movies and TV shows on the Nook HD, but they have been dropping hints about the content they plan to sell.

Today B&N announced they had signed new deals with  NBC and Fox. These deals will bring a wide selection of movies and TV shows to Nook HD owners, including blockbuster films like Snow White and the Huntsmen, Battleship, Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax, Ice Age: Continental Drift, and many more. These deals will also add hit TV shows like The Michael Richards Show, Coupling, Good Morning Miami, and other hit titles from Fox and NBC. Read more