Amazon.com
(
AMZN
), the largest digital bookseller, has added another weapon to its
arsenal: a 10-year exclusive deal to publish all 14 classics of
James Bond spy novels written by the late Ian Fleming. The rights
cover both print and digital formats in North America.
How much Amazon had to dish out remains a mystery. But we
hear that Penguin, which previously had the global English print
rights thought they were too expensive to renew.
In any case, Amazon will bring all-new versions of titles
such as
Dr. No
,
Casino Royale
,
The Spy Who Loved Me
,
Goldfinger
and by summer under the Thomas & Mercer imprint, which is for
Amazon's mystery genre. Management remains silent about the price
of the e-books as well as the hard copies.
The Harry Potter series by J.K Rowling; the Twilight Series by
Stephenie Meyer and other such new novels have stolen the limelight
in recent times. These famous titles were made into blockbuster
films. The Ian Fleming Publication house think that Amazon has the
capability of renewing interest in James Bond, thereby keeping the
hero alive.
Amazon leaves no stone unturned to strengthen its book sales.
The company is spending huge amounts to acquire titles and
publishing rights from various sources. It continues to add new
authors to build its publishing business.
Additionally, the recent Department of Justice suit against
Apple Inc.
(
AAPL
) and five other publishing houses for rigging the price of e-books
is expected to help Amazon in this endeavor. These companies had
tried to take business from Amazon, but the significant increase in
book prices (Amazon charged just $9.99) aroused the interest of
regulators.
Some believe that this is another Amazon strategy to lower
prices and eliminate intermediaries between producers and
customers. It is directly promoting its Kindle Direct Publishing
for its e-book business for this purpose. Whatever the case, there
is no doubt that Amazon will remain the leader in this segment of
the market for some time.
Amazon shares currently have a Zacks Rank of #3, implying a Hold
recommendation in the next 1-3 months.
APPLE INC (
AAPL
): Free Stock Analysis Report
AMAZON.COM INC (
AMZN
): Free Stock Analysis Report
To read this article on Zacks.com click here.
Zacks Investment
Research