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What’s the implications of Microsoft investing $300 million into the eBook business this week. It bought a 17.6% stake this week in a subsidiary that joins Barnes & Noble’s Nook e-reader and college bookstores businesses. That means Microsoft will compete directly with Amazon.com. We see this as further indication that education technology and digital learning is a place where big money and big technology is heading to create disruption, innovation and profits. Here’s what other media reported and commented about regarding the deal:

Karen Weise at Bloomberg Businessweek reports: 

The transaction, which will turn the software maker into a direct competitor of Amazon (AMZN), values the Nook business at $1.7 billion—a rare bit of good news for the struggling bookseller. That’s more than double Barnes & Noble’s total market capitalization. The partners said the investment would help speed the introduction of the Nook bookstore abroad and fund research and development of new e-ink Nook readers and tablets. Microsoft announced last year it would discontinue its own e-reader app effective August 2012. Via BusinessWeek

Steven D. Jones at Dow Jones Newswires reports: 

But as Microsoft has done with Nokia Inc. (NOK) in smartphones and Bing in Internet search, the software giant is playing catch-up without the benefit of profits. Barnes & Noble’s Nook business is on track to lose about $260 million on $1.1 billion in revenue this year, after losing about $200 million last year, says analyst Brett Harriss of Gabelli & Co., whose parent company GAMCO owns 59,000 shares of Barnes & Noble.

Since its launch in 2010, the Nook has pushed aside the Sony Reader from Sony Corp. (SNE) to become the No. 2 e-reader behind Amazon’s Kindle. In the quarter ended in January, sales at B&N.com soared 31.6% from a year earlier because of growth in the Nook business. But losses persist, and even though the profitable college book business also will be part of NewCo, losses on the digital side will make NewCo a money loser in 2012.

For its investment, Microsoft will acquire 18% of NewCo, which includes all of the Nook hardware, trademarks and intellectual property. The venture also will have ownership of the digital relationships with publishers, all Nook customer lists and the digital lockers where users access content. With its stake in NewCo, Microsoft can influence the development of the Nook and make it an attractive new application for its Windows 8 operating system. But it’s not just operating systems and processing power, Microsoft also acquired a relationship with Nook subscribers. Via WSJ.com

Matthew Yglesias at Slate.com writes: