Amazon and Penguin Bury the Hatchet

On Wednesday we learned that Penguin and Amazon have finally reached agreement in their contract dispute.

I reported previously that, since Amazon could not come to terms with Penguin over electronic books, any new e-books released starting April 1 would not be available for sale in the Kindle bookstore. The older e-books continued to be available for the $9.99 Amazon price.

Amazon then took an interesting negotiating tactic. On May 3, I reported here on a story in the Wall Street Journal:

... Amazon.com Inc. has begun selling a number of new hardcover books published this month by Pearson PLC's Penguin Group (USA) for only $9.99 amid a dispute between the two companies over electronic books ... Since Amazon can't sell the digital editions of Penguin's books, it is, in effect, showing its customers that Amazon is still the place to go for discount pricing. The low price also serves to put pressure on Penguin ...

Now, nearly a month later, Publishers Marketplace reports:

Ebooks for the company's titles released since April 1 .... are in the process of being restored to Amazon's site, though it will likely be a matter of days before all of those titles are available.

It's, of course, likely that the new releases will be priced at $12.99 rather than Amazon's preferred $9.99 price point.

Publishers Weekly reported:

Penguin['s] ... frontlist e-book titles should begin appearing in the Kindle bookstore no later than Monday ... With the agreement with Amazon, Penguin’s e-book titles are available for all major devices ...