It's raining e-book readers!
If price has been keeping you from snatching a portable digital reader, this was probably the week that you were waiting for.
Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS) and Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) slashed their Nook and Kindle prices by $60 and $70, respectively. Not to be outdone, Borders (NYSE: BGP) -- which doesn't have a gadget of its own, but sells a wide variety of readers at its stores and has a minority stake in a low-end upstart -- began offering $20 gift cards with select reader purchases.
The goal, after all, is to make up the discounts in volume. As long as folks don't simply load up the readers with public domain books and other freebie reads, it's a strategy that, while unlikely to work, should at least distance the readers from the costlier tablet revolution that the iPad ignited.
Briefly in the news
And now let's take a quick look at some of the other stories that shaped our week.
- A Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) executive told Reuters this week that his company is exploring the possibility of putting out a computer powered by Google's (Nasdaq: GOOG) Chrome OS. Open-source platforms have been little more than niche plays in the past, but we're living in a cloud-computing world these days.
- Research In Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM) opened lower on Friday after posting disappointing quarterly results. I hate to say "I told you so," but I did.
- Hasbro (NYSE: HAS) rebuffed buyout advances from a private equity firm. It remains to be seen if this smokes out potential suitors, but Hasbro's goal appears to be to remain independent. It's no Mrs. Potato Head.
Until next week, I remain,
Rick Munarriz
