Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN), Apple Inc. (AAPL): Why Fight E-book Price Fixing? Here’s the Real Reason…

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) doesn’t become the largest and most valuable tech company in the world by having stupid people in charge. For those who might not think that Tim Cook is as clever, smart or shrewd as the late Steve Jobs, just might want to pay attention to the happenings in the company’s e-book price-fixing trial against the U.S. Department of Justice, which is in its first week this week.

So Mr. Cook may not be necessarily the most charismatic guy on the planet, and he certainly does not come across as the marketing genius that Mr. Jobs was, but if there is any doubt about Cook’s ability to run Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), follow along with us to understand how Mr. Cook is no stupid man – in fact, he just might be one of the cleverest in the tech sector. Underratedly so.

In this scenario, Tim Cook just might be Sherlock Holmes and Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) CEO Jeff Bezos is his Professor Moriarty. How does Amazon.com  figure into a case between the Department of Justice and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)? Now, that is the clever part.

The Department of Justice pinned things on Apple all along when  the book publishers suddenly changed their pricing models  so that Amazon.com  did not automatically have the lowest prices on e-books – the publishers were in control of the prices, not the retailers.  What was happening was something that is done in the book-publishing industry a lot. Sometimes retailers get to decide their prices, other times the publishers do.

Well in this trial, the U.S. Department of Justice made the five e-book publishers mentioned in the initial collusion to settle their cases, and they the DOJ has been sending each one to the stand to testify against Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), trying to paint Cupertino as the one who arranged for this collusion to take place, which sabotaged the pricing and volume advantage that Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) had enjoyed in the e-book space. However, the government’s case, as strong as it seemed circumstantially, seemed to take a big hit when Amazon.com was called to testify.

So how does Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) fit in this, really?