Barnes & Noble acquires Fictionwise

There has been some interesting news in the e-book world this week. Yesterday we heard about Amazon’s release of an e-book application for the iPhone and today we learned that Barnes & Noble has acquired Fictionwise, a leading independent eBook publisher and distributor. According to the press release, Fictionwise will operate as a separate business unit under Barnes & Noble and founders Steve and Scott Pendergast will continue to run the business. Barnes & Noble plans to incorporate Fictionwise into its digital strategy which includes the launch of an e-Bookstore later this year. A posting on Teleread explains that the founders shopped the site around to potential buyers and decided on Barnes & Noble because of their support for Fictionwise’s philosophy of “platform neutrality and eReader everywhere,” meaning that customers should still be able to buy non-DRM books from Fictionwise when available.