Dive Brief:

• New York City-based Barnes & Noble Inc. has bought out the last portion of its Nook Media business for $28 million from Pearson, giving it complete control. Two years ago London-based Pearson paid $89 million for a 5% stake in Nook.

• The move means the country’s largest bookselling chain can move closer to its plan to spin off its struggling e-reader business.

• Earlier this month, the bookseller bought out Microsoft’s stake in Nook as well. 

Dive Insight:

It’s not clear what Barnes & Noble’s plans are for Nook — a spinoff or some other way to give the e-reader business and its bookstores a better chance to thrive. In any case, the bookseller can now complete whatever plans it does have regarding what to do with Nook Media. Nook was promising at one point, but never met, its expected potential compared to rival Amazon Kindle.