Fortune 500 bookseller Barnes & Noble has informed that that it has bought e-book seller Fictionwise for $15.7 million in cash.

However, the Fictionwise founders, Steve and Scott Pendergrast, will remain with the company and will run the Fictionwise websites as a separate business unit within Barnes & Noble.

Official Sources revealed that they plan to continue to add additional titles to their e-book collection and continue the expansion of the eReader format onto more platforms.

The latest cash deal, is a part of Barnes & Noble's overall digital strategy to launch its own e-book store later this year.

Fictionwise is one of the largest independent electronic book sellers in North America with an estimated 1.5 million ebook content units sold in 2008. The company sells ebooks in various formats - both encrypted and unencrypted ebooks.

It may be noted that Fictionwise acquired the eReader. com retail electronic book business unit from Motricity in January 2008.