• Reuters, Wednesday, February 3, 2010 1 PM

Adding to Amazon's long list of potential threats, Rupert Murdoch has expressed his displeasure with the e-book seller's pricing model. Murdoch's News Corp. controls HarperCollins, and, by extension, the distribution of such blockbuster authors as Michael Crichton and Janet Evanovich.

"We don't like the Amazon model of selling everything at $9.99," he said during a conference call with analysts on Tuesday. "They pay us the wholesale price of $14 or whatever we charge ... But I think it really devalues books and it hurts all the retailers of the hard cover books." Clearly smelling blood in the water in anticipation of Apple's entrance into the e-books market, Murdoch says Amazon appears "ready to sit down with us again" to talk about new terms. "Apple, in its agreement with us," said Murdoch, "does allow for a variety of slightly higher prices."

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