Book retailer company Barnes & Noble is considering spinning off their Nook e-reader unit so that they can continue to scale that business.  Barnes & Noble wants to “unlock” the value of the Nook unit.  Barnes & Noble is projecting that they will earn revenues of $7 and $7.2 billion in 2012 even though Wall Street was predicting $7.33 billion.  The losses are due to investments in the Nook business and sales of the Nook Simple Touch.

Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE:BKS) had recently issued the Q2 2012 earnings report and they revealed the NOOK business revenue hit $220 million. The NOOK Tablet has become Barnes & Noble’s fastest selling device to date. However the company hit a net loss of $6.6 million this past quarter.

Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE:BKS) has asked U.S. government regulators to investigate whether Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is seeking to monopolize the mobile device market by demanding patent royalties for electronics based on the Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android operating system.

Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE:BKS) has officially announced the details about the Nook Tablet today. The Nook Tablet was made to replace the Nook Color. The Nook Tablet has an “HD viewing experience” and it has a 1GHz dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM. The Tablet weighs under a pound and the display is sourced from LG. It has an IPS unit with a 180-degree viewing angle. It can play up to 9 hours of 1080p video on a single charge.

Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE:BKS) is expected to launch the Nook Tablet for $249 on November 16th. The Nook Tablet is going to have 7-inch VividView IPS color touchpanel with a 1024×600 screen resolution, 1.2GHz dual-core OMAP4 processor, 1GB RAM, 8.1x5x0.48 inches in dimensions, 16GB of hard drive space, microSD slot, 8 hours of battery with WiFi off, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, and support for many different formats including DOC, Flash, MP3, MP4, AAC, JPG, TXT, PDF, etc. The price is about $249 in the U.S. Pre-orders for the Nook Tablet starts on November 7th and the release date is November 15th. [Engadget]

Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE:BKS) reported that they are expecting a sales boost of $150-$200 million due to the dissolution of Borders book stores. Barnes & Noble expects a sales increase at stores that are open at least a year to increase 2-3% during their 2012 fiscal year, which starts May 1. Barnes & Noble acknowledged the competition they saw from Borders to find discounts due to the closing of 399 stores.

This graphic from Thomson Reuters shows just who is suing whom in our current patent wars.

Liberty Media is offering $17 per share or about $980 million to acquire Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE:BKS). This is a 20.4% premium over the closing of today’s Barnes & Noble stock price of $14.11. The proposal is “is contingent on the participation of founding chairman Leonard Riggio, both in terms of his continuing equity ownership and his continuing role in management.” Barnes & Noble is the world’s largest book seller. They have 705 stores across the U.S. and operate 636 college bookstores. Barnes & Noble is also known for developing the Nook e-book reader device. [paidContent]