Kool-Aid chuggers rejoice! Maybe sipping the dot-com mania wasn't as dangerous as once reported. Last night, Barnes & Noble (NYSE:BKS) closed on the deal announced back in July in which it would reacquire a majority stake in Barnesandnoble.com (NASDAQ:BNBN).

While the trend in the 1990s may have been to carve out spin offs or create tracking shares, companies are starting to realize that Internet operations that survived through the boom and bust are probably worth owning.

Disney's (NYSE:DIS) repurchase of its Disney Internet Group may have felt like surrender, but the companies buying back into their online pursuits these days aren't waving any white flags. In the online travel sector, Sabre (NYSE:TSG) scooped up what it didn't own of Travelocity because it had become a consistently profitable niche. Sensing success after its site's re-launch two years ago, Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) picked up the remaining 20% stake in Walmart.com from venture capitalists Accel Partners.

Is the game plan for Barnes & Noble to become the next Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN)? No. Not exactly. This is the realization that offline and online ventures were made to work together. There are synergies to exploit here and the incentive for Barnes & Noble to make it work in e-commerce has now doubled overnight with Bertelsmann's 37% stake in its hands.

Now, with a stronger hand, Barnes & Noble will be able to turn the page to the next chapter of Barnesandnoble.com with conviction. Stirred right, there should be no aftertaste to the Kool-Aid.

Is Barnes & Noble's move to firm up its online business a sound strategy? The company's timing, with the holidays closing in, can't be coincidental, so what do you think it will do differently to compete more effectively against Amazon? And, while we're at it, how will the 2003 holiday shopping season treat Amazon? All this and more -- in the Amazon Discussion Board . Only on Fool.com.