At Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech conference in Aspen, Colo., Tuesday afternoon, Leslie Moonves, CEO of Simon & Schuster parent company CBS, said the publisher is in talks with Amazon, presumably over sales terms, though neither S&S nor Amazon would comment.
In discussing CBS’s relationship with Amazon, Moonves noted that the two work together in some areas, while competing in others. Asked about his view of the Hachette Book Group-Amazon dispute, Moonves said: "We are negotiating with Amazon as we speak so I don’t want to get into too much detail about it."
Moonves also noted that, “obviously Amazon has a very definitive point of view on what should be done in the publishing business. Those in the publishing world are not totally copacetic with it."
It is no surprise that Amazon is in negotiations with another publisher, since it regularly discusses new terms with vendors. The "publishing world" Moonves referred to will certainly be watching to see if Amazon's negotiations with S&S lead to the same impasse the e-tailer currently has with HBG.
Notably, last year, S&S and Barnes & Noble were at loggerheads for about six months over terms. During this period, B&N did not fully stock all of S&S's titles.
Moonves' full remarks are available in a video posted by Fortune.
