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Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg
Good point, and I hope you are right.
Amazon is a MBA-heavy company[/url] in a world where typical MBA's consider worrying about the welfare of competitors almost as absurd as welcoming a union.
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I don't think it much matters whether they are MBA heavy or not. Amazon will act rationally on a cost/benefit basis. It needs to worry about anti-trust law, first in the strict sense and if that is okay then in an expanded sense of just how difficult an environment they will face from complaints, allegations, enquiries etc. Personally I can't see them lifting a hand to help B&N. B&N have nothing they want, not even their physical stores which are much too big for Amazon's model, unless Amazon perhaps want to combine them with Wholefoods, their experimental supermarkets etc., though I doubt it.
B&N might be a good investment for the large trade publishers, perhaps even as a joint venture. This would of course not endear them to independent bookstores. Also, given the bad decisions and lack of vision shown since Amazon came on the scene, there is absolutely no reason to believe they could run it successfully.