A short WSJ piece about an on-stage interview between CBS ceo Leslie Moonves and — ironically, a Fortune reporter at a Fortune forum in Aspen, CO — has traveled far and wide, and been stretched far and wide as it traveled. As we reported previously, Amazon is known to have been in discussions with other publishers besides Hachette […]
Agency
Kobo Continues to Press Case to Preserve Agency In Canada
Kobo continues to press their motion to rescind the ebook pricing consent agreements in Canada between the Competition Commission and the four agency publishers that we first reported on last week. In a memorandum of fact filed March 10, they reiterated their primary argument that “without a stay, Kobo will be irreparably harmed. Its contracts […]
Kobo Opposes Canadian Pricing Settlements; Economists Support Apple’s Appeal
Kobo recently filed in opposition to the agency pricing publisher settlements in Canada, objecting to the rapid 40-day timeframe in which they need to renegotiate major publisher contracts, but also arguing that the newly-imposed terms will make them “suffer significant unrecoverable losses” if “Kobo accepts the amendments and shifts its operations to an Agency Lite model.” […]
Agency Lite: And Then There Were Five
Just to confirm what we all knew what was coming — since no one else has formally said it out loud yet — by all indications Penguin Random House has completed the execution of new ebook contracts with major trading partners. As required by the court, Random House is complying with the terms of Penguin’s […]
Agency Lite Comes to Macmillan, and Begins in the UK As Well
Agency Lite has formally come to Macmillan titles now, after a longer-than-expected delay. Discounts on ebooks beyond what was previously allowed by the publisher can be seen on some of the company’s bestselling titles, such as Silver Linings Playbook (agency price, $9.99; discounted price $7.99); the Shred diet (agency price, $11.99; discounted price $9.99); and […]
Updates On Penguin’s Negotiations and Amazon China
Two interesting updates to stories from Thursday: Following the formalization of the ebook pricing settlement between the European Commission and four publishers and Apple announced yesterday, Penguin’s own statement about their negotiations was more forthcoming that the EC’s characterization. In fact, it was one of those rare moments when a company says out loud what […]