Noble Dot-Com Efforts

Kool-Aid chuggers rejoice! Maybe sipping into the dot-com mania wasn't as dangerous a feat 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).

With a 75% chunk of its namesake online operations, the book retailer isn't an anomaly. Actually, it's just the latest bricks-and-mortar operation to take a more active interest in its online space.

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.

While Disney's (NYSE:DIS) repurchase of its Disney Internet Group may have felt like a surrender, 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 relaunch two years ago, Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) picked up the remaining 20% stake in Walmart.com from venture capitalists Accel Partners.

So, in taking a commanding position in Barnesandnoble.com, is Barnes & Noble planning to become the next Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN)? No. Not exactly. Sure, it doesn't hurt that Amazon's stock is closing in on a ten-bagger over the past two years, but it's not as if Barnesandnoble.com has been turning any trading heads over in its penny stock nadir.

However, 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 the e-commerce realm 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 on to the next chapter of Barnesandnoble.com with conviction. Stirred right, there should be no aftertaste to the Kool-Aid.