Barnesandnoble.com to Form Online Education Site

NEW YORK-Online bookstore Barnesandnoble.com said Tuesday it has purchased a minority stake in NotHarvard.com. The companies will jointly create Barnes & Noble University, which will use free, online education as a sales and marketing tool.

Financial terms were not disclosed. However, Barnesandnoble.com is one of several new investors in NotHarvard.com, which raised $26 million in its second round of venture funding. Other investors include Impact Ventures, Merrill Lynch and Austin Ventures.

The companies said that Barnes & Noble University will offer online learning courses to Barnesandnoble.com’s customers through its Web site (https://www.bn.com) beginning this summer.

Barnesandnoble.com also becomes the primary distributor of NotHarvard.com’s eduCommerce course materials.

Many of the courses will be based upon books in the field. The book retailer said it plans to invite authors of those books to become instructors, offering them the ability to publish additional content in both electronic form as well as through print-on-demand technology.

A Barnesandnoble.com spokesman said the company plans to eventually offer thousands of classes. At the moment, it is putting together about 30 courses for the summer.

“Our strategy has been to concentrate on information, education and entertainment, and the product extensions and developments in our business have always been something of a logical extension of the Barnesandnoble.com brand,” the spokesman said. “Part of our strategy is to use the Internet to its fullest potential as a portal for knowledge and learning, not only as a commercial vehicle.”

Shares of Barnesandnoble.com rose 63 cents on Tuesday to $9.38 on Nasdaq.