The battle between Hachette and Amazon (AMZN) ended today with a joint announcement that the companies have reached a multi-year agreement for e-book and print sales in the U.S.
According to the agreement, Hachette is being given "financial incentives" to lower prices for its books sold by Amazon.
During the protracted dispute, Amazon delayed sometimes by weeks the availability of Hachette Group books, and also failed to prominently promote the company's titles.
In one case — that of The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith (aka J.K. Rowling) — Amazon backed down under consumer pressure and shipped the book in a timely fashion.
Big-name authors also took up an advertising campaign critical of Amazon's tactics.
Michael Pietsch, Hachette Book Group CEO said in a news release, "This is great news for writers. The new agreement will benefit Hachette authors for years to come. It gives Hachette enormous marketing capability with one of our most important bookselling partners."
"We are pleased with this new agreement as it includes specific financial incentives for Hachette to deliver lower prices, which we believe will be a great win for readers and authors alike," said David Naggar, vice president, Kindle.
The new e-book terms will take effect early in 2015.
According to the release, Hachette will have responsibility for setting consumer prices of its e-books, and will also benefit from better terms when it delivers lower prices for readers. The release also said Hachette books will be prominently featured in Amazon promotions.
Shares of Amazon.com were up 1.5% to $316.13 at midday.
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