Thanks, in large part, to the advent of business models based on digital partnerships and fractured content—from single chapters, audiobook downloads, and video to subscriptions and bundled media—the game of managing rights and royalties has grown increasingly complex—and exciting.

Even as more consumers buy dedicated digital reading devices and tablets, a hybrid market for books is developing in which readers will buy both print and digital books. That was one of the main conclusions from Verso Digital’s “2011 Survey of Book-Buying Behavior,” presented by the company’s Jack McKeown at last week’s ABA Winter Institute held in New Orleans.

Baker & Taylor has reached an agreement with computer chip producer Intel to bundle Blio multimedia e-reading software and full-service online bookstores on a new generation of Intel Ultrabook laptop computers.

Amazon is the latest online retailer to craft a browser-based work around for purchases made on Apple devices.

The sale of the Canadian e-reading company Kobo to Japanese Internet and e-commerce giant Rakuten for $315 million has been finalized and approved by the Canadian government.

Last year, when we asked publishers for their five bestselling e-books over Christmas, we received lists full of frontlist bestsellers, with a handful of backlist hits in the mix. This year, we again approached publishers for the same lists—in most cases sales are only for December 25 and 26, though in some instances sales are for the entire holiday week—and results are similar. While a number of expected bestsellers drew consumers who were given a tablet or e-reader, or a gift card to one of the e-book storefronts, there were also a healthy dose of backlist titles being downloaded.

In October, PW looked at publishing and QR codes, those little squares that appear on advertisements and look a lot like barcodes. While publishers are still figuring out how best to utilize that technology, they’ll have to make room for the next step in scannable code technology: SnapTags.

While the outrage over Amazon.com’s price check app is understandable, retailers must know that it’s not unusual for consumers to use online sites as well as mobile devices to compare prices on all kinds of products.

Who says men don’t read? Not F+W Media, which is launching the Man-Cave, a virtual “pop-up” holiday bookstore on its online retail site featuring a selection of titles aimed at dudes.

The European Union Competition Committee has opened a formal antitrust investigation into agency pricing agreements on e-books made between Apple and Penguin, Hachette, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster and the Holtzbrinck Group (Macmillan).