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"While the e-book war between Apple and Amazon has only just begun, this weekend's drama between Macmillan and Amazon has ended decisively in the book publisher's favor.\nThis weekend it was revealed that Macmillan and Amazon were fighting over e-book prices.  Macmillan wanted to raise the prices and change pricing to an agency model.  Amazon responded by yanking Macmillan books off the digital shelves.\nNow Amazon has made its own statement on its forums.  The gist of the message: You win, Macmillan.\nSpecifically, Amazon is giving into Macmillan's demands because it \"has a monopoly over their own titles, and we will want to offer them to you even at prices we believe are needlessly high for e-books.\"  Clearly Amazon is going along with this unwillingly and believes that consumers will prove that Macmillan's new prices are unreasonable by not opening their wallets.\nHere's the full statement:\n\nDear Customers:\nMacmillan, one of the \"big six\" publishers, has clearly communicated to us that, regardless of our viewpoint, they are committed to switching to an agency model and charging $12.99 to $14.99 for e-book versions of bestsellers and most hardcover releases.\nWe have expressed our strong disagreement and the seriousness of our disagreement by temporarily ceasing the sale of all Macmillan titles. We want you to know that ultimately, however, we will have to capitulate and accept Macmillan's terms because Macmillan has a monopoly over their own titles, and we will want to offer them to you even at prices we believe are needlessly high for e-books. Amazon customers will at that point decide for themselves whether they believe it's reasonable to pay $14.99 for a bestselling e-book. We don't believe that all of the major publishers will take the same route as Macmillan. And we know for sure that many independent presses and self-published authors will see this as an opportunity to provide attractively priced e-books as an alternative.\nKindle is a business for Amazon, and it is also a mission. We never expected it to be easy!\nThank you for being a customer.\n"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2010/01/31/amazon-to-macmillan-you-win-for-now/>