Amazon v. MacMillan

February 1, 2010 12:52 PM

In a late-Friday surprise move, Amazon removed all "Buy Now" links to books published by Macmillan, the parent company of Tor, St. Martin's Press and many others. Macmillan released a statement making clear that this is a hardball negotiation tactic on Amazon's part. Amazon's official statement frames the disagreement a little differently.

The heart of the issue is a difference of opinion about Amazon's place in the supply chain. In addition to various parodies of Amazon's statement (provided not by the CEO or PR department, but the unspecifically-named "Amazon Kindle Team" and buried on their forums), the incident occasioned some thoughtful analysis.

While Amazon has supposedly relented, authors are still waiting for their books to become available.

This is not the first weekend surprise by Amazon (previously.)

posted by restless_nomad (15 comments total)

Double!
posted by humannaire at 12:55 PM on February 1, 2010

Amazon would never engage in loutish, PR debacles like this... that would be like stealing electronic copies of "1984" back from their owners!
posted by ExitPursuedByBear at 12:55 PM on February 1, 2010 [2 favorites]

This post has more links, but isn't it mostly a double?
posted by BeerFilter at 12:55 PM on February 1, 2010

This is not the first discussion of this surprise by Amazon
posted by Babblesort at 12:55 PM on February 1, 2010

In a surpise move, this was posted last week.
posted by Ironmouth at 12:57 PM on February 1, 2010 [2 favorites]

I like pants.
posted by Ironmouth at 12:57 PM on February 1, 2010

Damn. I triple-checked, too.
posted by restless_nomad at 12:57 PM on February 1, 2010

Timing
posted by Babblesort at 12:57 PM on February 1, 2010

Damn. I triple-checked, too.

First result of a search of Amazon on the blue.
posted by Ironmouth at 12:58 PM on February 1, 2010

Countdown has begun...
posted by humannaire at 12:59 PM on February 1, 2010

In other Amazon news, Kindle users are punishing books that do not have Kindle editions by bombarding them with one-star reviews. Something about the Kindle brings out the bully in people, I suppose.
posted by WPW at 12:59 PM on February 1, 2010 [2 favorites]

Now that sounds like an interesting potential FPP.
posted by Babblesort at 12:59 PM on February 1, 2010

What, my link?
posted by WPW at 1:00 PM on February 1, 2010

Yep.
posted by Babblesort at 1:00 PM on February 1, 2010

I must away from the computer for now so go for it if you want! Otherwise I might later.
posted by WPW at 1:02 PM on February 1, 2010