Barnes & Noble dropped its plans to acquire the Ingram Book Group, the nation's largest book wholesaler, after the Federal Trade Commission announced its opposition to the takeover on antitrust grounds. But since the deal was first announced, many independent book buyers fled from Ingram and found alternative sources for their books. As a result, Ingram's competitors, previously deemed insignificant by the FTC, are expanding rapidly at Ingram's expense. What's more, now that the deal has failed, Barnes & Noble says it will use the money that would have gone into the deal to build its own distribution system, further undermining Ingram's supposedly invincible monopoly.

†