Some analysis from Time Carmody:
Amazon gets:
Quote:
For Amazon, the long-term strategy is much clearer. This is about eliminating real and potential e-book competitors by sucking out all the oxygen in the room. Amazon could continue to sell the Kindle at generalist UK retailers like Tesco or John Lewis. But if we assume that the long-rumored partnership with Waterstones and Barnes & Noble was an active possibility (and Daunt's comments suggest that it was), Amazon partnering with Waterstones denies a potential rival a place at the table. (A representative from Barnes & Noble had no comment on the Amazon-Waterstones agreement.)
It's defense as much as offense. Before Microsoft had agreed to feature and invest in Nook e-books, Barnes & Noble's threat to Amazon in the UK was negligble. But a separate, increasingly global Nook business with Microsoft money and a strong partnership with Waterstones? That would be a different story — and one that probably spurred Amazon to reach out to Waterstones with what probably seemed to Daunt like an offer he couldn't refuse.
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Waterstones gets:
Quote:
The best guess right now, pieced together from what little public information there is right now, is that Waterstones gets the following:
1. Profits from the sale of e-readers;
2. A cut of every e-book sold inside a Waterstones store;
3. A chance to cross-promote its print books with e-books, whether sold in Waterstones or possibly even elsewhere;
4. Cash. And quite possibly a lot of it.
Given how quickly the deal appears to have come together, it’s quite likely that the terms are much more favorable, at least on their face, than anything Barnes & Noble had been offering.
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