Amazon Gives In to Publisher Macmillan

Updated from Saturday, Jan. 30

SEATTLE (TheStreet) -- Amazon(AMZN) has agreed to sell electronic versions of its books at prices it considers too high, giving in to publisher Macmillan.

Amazon over the weekend pulled titles from Macmillan off its Web site because of a pricing dispute after Macmillan and other publishers worked out a new e-book pricing scheme for Apple's(AAPL) new iPad.

New copies of Hilary Mantel's "Wolf Hall," Andrew Young's "The Politician" and other books published by Macmillan were unavailable Saturday on Amazon.com, after the e-retailer pulled the titles, the Associated Press reports.

Amazon said Sunday it was in "strong disagreement" with MacMillan's plan to sell e-books at $12.99 to $14.99 when first released, with prices dynamic over time.

However, Amazon said in a posting on an online forum it would "have to capitulate and accept Macmillan's terms because Macmillan has a monopoly over their own titles, and we will want to offer them to you even at prices we believe are needlessly high for e-books."

Amazon has been criticized by Macmillan and other publishers for charging just $9.99 for best-selling e-books on its Kindle e-reader, a price publishers say is too low and could hurt sales of higher priced hardcovers, AP reports.

"We are in discussions with Amazon about how to resolve our differences," Macmillan CEO John Sargent told AP Sunday, without commenting further.

-- Reported by Joseph Woelfel in New York.

Follow TheStreet.com on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

>To order reprints of this article, click here: Reprints