Microsoft and Barnes & Noble take on Amazon's Kindle with $300m deal The book shop company's shares almost doubled today after the news was announced, soaring 92pc to $26.32 in pre-market trading. Barnes & Noble had a market cap of $823m at the end of trading on Friday. Barnes & Noble and Microsoft also said they have settled a patent litigation they had been battling out between them. The companies will introduce an application for the Nook on Windows 8, the upcoming version of Microsoft's operating system, which will open up Barnes & Noble's e-book store to hundreds of millions of potential readers. The book shop owner did not say whether the new company will be listed. It will still have access to the resources of Barnes & Noble, the biggest bookshop chain in the US.