Its $89.5 million investment values Nook Media at $1.789 billion, the same as when Barnes & Noble span the digital book outfit out in to a separate company in October.

But its comes on the same day Barnes & Noble told Wall Street its holiday sales, announced on January 3, results “will be below expectations and that the Nook business will not meet the company’s prior projection for fiscal year 2013″.

When Barnes & Noble span out Nook, Microsoft invested $300 million for a 17.6 percent stake. Pearson’s announcement today, however, puts Microsoft’s stake at a reduced 16.8 percent. Barnes & Noble’s stake is put at 78.2 percent (down from 82.4 percent).

That is because new equity was issued. Pearson, whose John Fallon (pictured) becomes CEO on January 1, has a further option to buy another five percent later on.

Why is Pearson putting up the money? Its North America CEO Will Ethridge (via announcement) says:

“With this investment, we have entered into a commercial agreement with Nook Media that will allow our two companies to work closely together in order to create a more seamless and effective experience for students. It is another example of our strategy of making our content and services broadly available to students and faculty through a wide range of distribution partners.”

Barnes & Noble says (via announcement):

“Pearson’s strategic investment in Nook Media will accelerate customer access to digital content by pairing its leading expertise in online learning with Nook Media’s expertise in online distribution and customer service. This will facilitate improved discovery of available digital content and services, as well as seamless access.”

Separately, Barnes & Noble adds: “Nook Media and Pearson will be also entering into a commercial agreement with respect to distributing Pearson content.”

In other words, it’s a classic vertical integration play — for the digital age. By owning both content production and a part of retail distribution, Pearson can begin to become more certain about selling its wares — at a time when publishers, in the consumer space, have been pit against all-powerful retailers like Apple and Amazon.

Pearson has previously conceded its printed text book business is challenged, whilst its Penguin book publisher saw ebook sales grew 33 percent during 2012.

However, Pearson’s investment is not solely about digital content. Its announcement notes that Nook Media now also operates Barnes & Noble’s network of 674 booksellers at US college campuses — giving it continuing certainty over the delivery of those printed education books.

For Nook, guaranteeing content supply in the increasingly important education sector could prove positive.

The likes of ASOS, Birchbox and Telegraph Fashion have been marrying the two for a couple of years. Now women’s weekly magazine Grazia is the latest to try profiting from the collision.

The U.K. title has launched a new “shoppable” iPad edition. According to publisher Bauer Media:

“[It] enables the reader to buy items directly from Grazia’s influential fashion pages, acting on impulse as soon as they see items on screen. They will also be able to link through to purchase everything from theater and gig tickets to books and technology products.”

Although the iPad edition has a £1.99-per-edition cover price through Apple Newsstand, that hasn’t stopped Bauer Media also leaning on what it’s calling an ecommerce-centric “Shop, Share and Save” mentality for extra revenue.

The many clothes and beauty items featured in the title link through to purchase options, powered by PopSugar’s Shopstyle, with which revenue is split. And Grazia has inked a specific partnership with high street retailer Boots both to process beauty transactions and to feature a feed of top products from boots.com.

Bauer Media lifestyle MD Abby Carvosso (via announcement):

“We’re already in discussions with premium brands seeking innovative new advertising solutions. We know readers buy products recommended by Grazia and this new iPad edition offers them the ease and simplicity to buy a product as soon as they see it.”

Two years ago, Advent Ventures partner Frédéric Court wrote on paidContent:

“Media companies now have a chance to monetise their audiences not just through plain ads, but also through transactions.

“On the flip side, ecommerce companies have begun to create their own content – using articles and videos to provide curated commerce experiences – and to monetize their audience, like publishers before them, by selling ads.”

This fusion is a natural fit for a title like Grazia, which is obsessed by products and adept at editorializing to advocate them. With featured clutch bags, for example, retailing at prices like £2,045, Bauer could be on to a winner if this works.

All publishers, however, must be careful not to let the commerce tail wag the content dog so much that readers balk.

In the UK, Domino’s has launched what it’s calling Pizza Box Office, an initiative giving online pizza orderers their choice of complementary movie streamed to PC, Mac or tablet (release).

The initiative is designed to incentivise ecommerce orders and illustrates how digital movies, like music tracks before them, can now be used as the auxiliary content of wider marketing campaigns.

If pizzas and movies really do go hand in hand, as Domino’s wants to suggest, this marriage could snag one-time buyers who don’t necessarily need to subscribe to a monthly service.

But pizza eaters shouldn’t expect a Netflix-beating selection of titles. Domino’s has only secured repertoire from one studio – Lionsgate UK. And Pizza Box Office is not yet streaming to TVs, on which most pizza eaters will prefer watching their flick.

This year, online began accounting for the majority (58.4 percent) of Domino’s UK orders. In the year to September, ecommerce sales rose 42 percent to £184.9 million ($297 million) (release). That was thanks to a 46.9 percent rise in mobile internet orders, which now make up 18.5 percent of online sales.

“The directors expect this trend to continue over the next three years as both physical music sold by internet mail order and digital downloads continue to take market share,” the UK music and entertainment retailer said, as it announced 19.7 percent lower annual sales and a £16.2 million ($25 million) loss on Thursday.

HMV has operated its own HMVDigital download store, powered by 7digital, since it bought half of the retailer and white label provider in 2009. But it has never presented any figures showing any success. 7digital lost HMV £700,000 last year, though is set to hang on to the well-thought-of operator, whose importance to HMV must actually grow as physical diminishes.

The company now plans: “Developing HMV’s online and multichannel offerings, particularly in light of the removal of LVCR (low value consignment relief), which will assist HMV to compete on a level playing field with pure internet competitors, and to offer improved services such as click-and-collect in stores.”

The UK’s LVCR had allowed tax-tree imports of CDs from Channel Islands-registered startups, but was abolished this April.

But both online sales and of and in-store pick-up for music CDs are two variants of an overall market HMV knows is shrinking to vanishing point.

Mostly, HMV wants to continue its recent strategy under which selling entertainment devices like tablets and smartphones – themselves bundled with music – becomes more lucrative than selling music itself.

Music and movie studios rescued the struggling retailer in January when they agreed to take equity in HMV rather than call in its unpaid fees for their disc shipments.

Consumers commonly re-sell their old plastic, boxed applications, CDs and video games through auction sites and back to retailers.

When it comes to the equivalent practise of re-selling download licenses, one of the world’s largest software makers has been trying to stop the prospect – but its efforts have been thrown out by a court.

The European Court of Justice has ruled: ”An author of software cannot oppose the resale of his ‘used’ licences allowing the use of his programs downloaded from the internet.”

The case follows a complaint brought by Oracle in Germany against UsedSoft, a site which buys and sells business software licenses from their original owners. It means the license consumers get when they buy software via download can be traded on in the same way the boxed license can be.

The ruling is being digested in the games industry, where high street retailers have carved out a thriving new trade by buying and re-selling second-hand boxed games from and to customers.

Some online companies like Green Man Gaming have tried to create an equivalent market in selling activation codes for PC game downloads.

The customers who trade their license in to Green Man Gaming must first deactivate their game code. Company boss Paul Sulyok tells Eurogamer the ruling will prompt customers of download stores like Steam and Origin to include the same deactivation and reactivation function, so that they can “trade in” their games.

What does any of this mean for other digitally-downloaded software like mobile apps and Mac App Store apps?

“A straightforward analysis might be that mobile apps are software just like Oracle’s program,” writes game industry lawyer Jas Purewall on his blog. “The first purchaser of a mobile app should be able to sell it to a second purchaser (even if technically the ability  to do that doesn’t exist… yet).

“On the other hand, there is at least an argument that the first purchaser of an app shouldn’t have the ability to resell the app to a third party due to this case, because when that first purchaser bought the app she would have had no technical ability – or even the expectation  - of being able to sell it to a third party.”

But Purewall also suspects an alternative tech trend could render the ruling less important: “Two words: cloud computing.  Actually, four more words: Software as a Service.  As software and games increasingly become long-tailed services rather than digital goods, the question of the legality of second hand sales recedes into the distance.

“Of course, eventually we’ll get to a stage when questions about the legal transferability of SaaS services starts coming up, but we’re a way off that yet.”