In what would be a breathtakingly bold move against its upstart rival Amazon.com, giant bookseller Barnes & Noble is set to acquire the Ingram Book Company for between $500m and $700m, according to financial industry columnist Herb Greenberg. Writing in TheStreet.com, Greenberg cited sources familiar with the situation in the piece. What makes the deal particularly significant is that Ingram is the biggest supplier of books to Amazon, which itself bid to acquire part of the distributor earlier this year, according to the story. The deal would inevitably come to the attention of the anti-trust brigade, but Barnes & Noble has apparently agreed that Ingram would be allowed to continue to supply Amazon. German media company Bertelsmann AG is currently buying a 50% stake in Barnes & Noble’s own barnesandnoble.com online operation for around $200m (CI No 3,511).
