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E-Book Pricing War Intensifies: Amazon Pulls Macmillan

Posted January 30, 2010 at 1:43pm by iClarified · 3797 views
Amazon has pulled Macmillan E-Books off the Amazon Store as part of a pricing war between Publishers, Amazon, and Apple.

According to a New York Times source with knowledge of the dispute "the disappearance is the result of a disagreement between Amazon.com and book publishers that has been brewing for the last year. Macmillan, like other publishers, has asked Amazon to raise the price of electronic books from $9.99 to around $15. Amazon is expressing its strong disagreement by temporarily removing Macmillan books".

Macmillan has signed on to offer books to Apple through its new iBooks store. Its thought that Apple may be giving publishers more leeway to set their own prices for e-books; although, Steve Jobs did assure Mossberg that prices would be "the same" as Amazon.

The New York Times also suggests there may be antitrust issues if a publisher offers their titles to one party and not another.

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