The Bookseller reports that publishing megaconglomerates Bertelsmann (owner of Random House) and Holtzbrinck (owner of Macmillan, to which it changed its name for purposes of US operations several years ago) are cooperating to create an on-line e-book distribution platform, primarily for German-language e-books.
The paperwork has already been submitted to the European Commission in Brussels, but the two corporations have been keeping most details secret. Not much more is known about their plans, but there seems to be concern that this new development might imperil the plans of German trade association Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels (roughly, “Association of German Book Trade”) to create a unified market with its Libreka format.
oh, geez. First, it’s the new Sharp format, now this? Here I’d thought we almost were finished with the Tower of E-Babel. I can partly understand why Asian e-books might need a separate format, since EPUB isn’t so great at Asian-style layouts I but German?