As Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) continues its feud with the Hachette Book Group, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) is seizing the opportunity to bridge customers to books they want and make some money in return.
According to a report from The Christian Science Monitor (CSN), Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) has seen an uptick in sales of books directly as a result of the disagreement between Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Hachette Book Group which carries popular authors such as J.K. Rowling, James Patterson, Malcolm Gladwell, David Sedaris and Nicholas Sparks.
In a statement, Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) has acknowledged the difficulty for its customers to buy Hachette books because of the dispute by saying that people can buy from third-party sellers on their sites or from their competitors. The company said in its statement that it does not see the impasse ending soon.
CSN reports that the strategy being employed by Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) is working. It has cut prices of Hachette books on its site and proudly announced so on its home page. According to the publication, the retailer has noted a sharp 70% increase of book sales from Tuesday to Friday last week.
In a report, The New York Times said that the web commerce giant and the publisher are arguing about pricing for e-books. The publication said that while the tech company views books as like any other consumer product, the publisher is adamant in saying that it is not. The e-commerce giant has been known to promote cutting the middle man out of the seller to buyer relationship.
Affected in the current dispute between Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Hachette are about 5,000 books the publisher has on the e-commerce giant’s website. Though it is currently hard to buy a book from the publisher through the site, the tech giant did say in its statement that it will eventually ship books bought by people.
It remains to be seen whether antitrust authorities will become involved in the feud.
Among investors in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) is Lansdowne Partners managed by Alex Snow, which has about 2.95 million shares of the company as of the end of the first quarter. Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management also owns 2.34 million shares valued at about $788 million. John Griffin’s Blue Ridge Capital also holds a sizeable stake in the company consisting of 810,000 stocks with a valuation of $272 million.
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