As some of us expected, the UK’s Office of Fair Trading has cleared the way for Amazon’s proposed acquisition of The Book Depository. The OFT said that according to the evidence it received, The Book Depository only accounted for “between two to four per cent of online retailing of hard-copy books,” and as such didn’t qualify as a “significant source of competitive rivalry to Amazon.” Further, the OFT added, “the evidence indicated that competition within Amazon Marketplace would continue to be strong post-merger, for a wide range of book titles.” As to whether the merger would reduce competition in “deep-range” […]
