Updates on the Waterstone’s/Ottakar Deal The heads of a number of UK houses held meetings recently with top management at HMV and Ottakar’s to underscore — in case their feelings were not already known — “in the strongest possible terms that the proposed merger of Waterstone’s and Ottakar’s was ‘against the wishes of the industry,'” PN reports. PN adds, “one industry insider suggested that both chains are deliberately ‘talking down’ Christmas sales to persuade publishers to support the merger on the basis that if it doesn’t happen, one will go under.” Meanwhile, the Office of Fair Trading has released its […]