Mobile Read has a couple of articles on the new debate of whether Amazon, rather than Barnes and Noble, should acquire Borders. William Ackman of Pershing Square Capital Management says aye (and Pershing has a 10% stake in Boders Group Inc) and Rich Aristotle Munarriz of the Motley Fool says nay. From a consumer standpoint, I’m not sure where I fall. I thought Amazon’s power was the lack of overhead that a brick and mortar business brings. I don’t want to see Barnes and Noble subsumed by Borders because I would think that would mean a reduction of diversity as Barnes and Noble would focus on selling the tried and true and would take less chances. Amazon, however, seems to be eyeing publishing industry domination which is also bad for the consumer.
Via MobileRead.
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OK, I’m not in the publishing business in any way, but even I can see this would be a really stupid move. Amazon should stick with what it knows best and what made it the powerhouse that it is. To buy into the brick and mortar side of things would be like beating a team at sports and then taking up their strategy.
Definitely not. I think it would be too big a cultural shift for Amazon. Selling books and selling widgets on line are about the same. Selling books on line and selling books off line are very different.
I still haven’t forgiven Borders for buying Waldenbooks and shutting down all of the local ones. I loved the $5 coupons I used to get from Waldens in their purchasing program. It took Borders forever to figure out that readers love those type of incentives. By the time Borders started their program I was hooked on on-line buying.
Hell, no!
Going brick and mortar would be a waste of capital that can be spent making the butt-ugly Kindle as sexy as the Sony e-Reader. If that happens (and DRM is abolished…and there was one format to rule ‘em all), even I might drink the Kindle Kool-Aid.