Re the Amazon take over of Book Depository, this is what the Guardian reported 27/10/11:
The Office of Fair Trading's decision to allow Amazon's purchase of its smaller competitor the Book Depository to go ahead threatens the future of bookselling, the Booksellers Association has said.
The OFT began its investigation into the deal in July, when a host of book industry bodies spoke out against the move, including the Publishers Association, the Booksellers Association , the Independent Publishers' Guild, the Bookseller Group and the Society of Authors.
On Wednesday, the OFT cleared the acquisition, saying there was "limited pre-merger competition" between the two websites, with Amazon's share of the online book market strong – it is estimated to be as high as 70% by experts – and the Book Depository accounting for between two and four per cent of online book retail. Post-merger, Amazon would continue to face "strong" competition from other online retailers, bricks and mortar booksellers and supermarkets when it came to bestsellers, said the OFT, while it would also face "competition and rivalry" on "deep range" titles from other online competitors and Amazon Marketplace sellers.
Founded in 2004, the Book Depository aims to sell "less of more" rather than "more of less", offering free shipping on its range of six million titles to more than 100 countries around the world. It claims to be Europe's fastest growing bookseller, and to be the UK's largest dedicated online bookseller.'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011...depository-oft