BGR has an exclusive scoop from an unproven source that Apple is currently in talks to purchase Barnes & Noble. Apple has a history of passing up opprotunities to acuire compinies when the opprotunity arrises. However I believe this is one they may want to think about. BGR estimates the cost of Barnes & Noble to be somewhere around $1 – $ Billion, and with Apple’s 2010 Proffit of $14.01 Billion (Wiki Source) This would hardly put a dent in there coin purse.
With the Release of the iPad 2 and Apple putting new focus on there iBooks app this could potentially be a very good sale for them, opening up the iBook store to the Barnes & Noble electronic book store library.
The only downside I could see to this murger would be the fate of the Barnes & Noble Nook reader, Apple would likely discountinue this device. Hopefully releasing a firmware update to at least give it access to the iBook Store.