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) has updated the Nook Color to support Netflix, Flixster, and Marvel Comics. Other updates include the ability to read books in landscape mode. The Nook Color currently is priced at $199. Future software updates will include access to Pandora and Rhapsody. Check out the press release below:

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) 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.

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]

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has filed legal actions with the International Trade Commission and the U.S. District Court of the Western District of Washington against Barnes & Noble Inc., Foxconn, and Inventec Corporation for patent infringement by their Android-based e-reader and tablet devices that is being marketed under the Barnes & Noble brand.