Re: Libraries Urge Justice Departmen to Block Cinven and Candover Purchase of BertelsmannSpringer

["Anthony Watkinson" <anthony.watkinson@btopenworld.com>]

I don't think that anyone has found any evidence that publishers collude
in fixing prices or deciding on price policies. It is because they do not.
Particularly in the US there is in publishing circles a huge fear of
anti-trust legislation, which sometimes militates against healthy
pre-competitive cooperation in the area of standards (for example). It
seems to me that sometimes cynicism is an excuse for unwarranted
accusations.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter Picerno" <ppicerno@nova.edu>
To: <liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu>
Sent: Thursday, June 05, 2003 2:01 AM
Subject: RE: Libraries Urge Justice Departmen to Block Cinven and Candover
Purchase of BertelsmannSpringer

> >Well... it would challenge Elsevier by actually providing competition on
> >a similar scale, wouldn't it?
>
> Or it would provide a much cozier climate for collusion on the fixing of
> prices and industrial agreement on price-inflation policies. I don't
> necessarily see two giant concerns as being 'competition' especially when
> they're both strictly non-academic (i.e., commercial, or profit-driven)
> agencies.
>
> Just my cynical view.
>
> Peter Picerno