B & N's Purchase of Ingram Seen As Danger (fwd)

[W. Kiernan]

Frances Bolton (PHI) wrote:
> 
> Man the Barricades:
> Barnes & Noble's Purchase of Ingram Seen As Danger
> 
>     Friday's announcement that bookselling giant Barnes & Noble is
> acquiring book distribution giant Ingram for $600 million in cash and
> stock has set off alarm bells across the publishing and bookselling
> world. The purchase would put Barnes & Noble in control of the
> primary distributor for its chief online bookselling rival,
> Amazon.com, and for most small chains and independent bookstores
> throughout the country...

Does anyone reading this know if Ingram has exclusive contracts with the
major publishers?  In other words, does, say, Random House (or whatever)
distribute their stuff through Ingram alone, and no other book
wholesaler can distribute that imprint?  It's those damned exclusive
contracts that really put the teeth in monopolies like this in their
stage of vertical expansion.

If that's the case, it's too late to begin talking about a monopoly;
Ingram already had the monopoly, in place and functioning.  It's just
that now, they would be beginning to fully exploit it.

Yours WDK - WKiernan at concentric.net