Barnes & Noble is 'dead man walking', IMO. They offer nothing to differentiate themselves from their competitors, primarily Amazon and to a lesser degree, Apple and Google. It's only a matter of time before they either go bankrupt or are purchased---which is why I think this could actually be precursor to Samsung actually eventually buying B&N, at least their online operations and content.
Samsung is a hardware powerhouse but the one area where they are unable to compete is with media content. Samsung customers still have to look elsewhere for their media and buying B&N would get their foot in the door. This 'partnership' may be their way of testing the waters.