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Seems to me that Penguin's action is a reaction to Amazon's unilateral decision to permit Prime members to borrow books. I say this because Penguin didn't remove the ePub versions from Overdrive. Amazon likes to push the limits. Unfortunately, when it goes too far from the perspective of its suppliers, the reaction tends to hurt the consumer more than Amazon.
One other thing to consider. Amazon is establishing itself as a direct competitor to Penguin. In the past, the only issue was Amazon's price-setting policies. Now that Amazon has aggressively entered the publishing business and the competition to sign authors as a publisher, it is an even greater threat to Penguin and the other publishers. I expect that has also played into Penguin's decision. After all, how much should it want to support what is becoming a direct competitor?
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