A bidding war for the right to handle distribution for publishers represented by Publishers Group West (PGW) may well be decided by a court ruling that could come as early as today.  PGW was a subsidiary of the scandal-plagued AMS, and when AMS declared bankruptcy on December 29th (see 'AMS Bankruptcy Roils Book World'), in the words of the Wall St. Journal, 'it effectively captured all the fourth quarter revenue of PGW's clients, threatening the livelihood of many of these publishers.' Enter the Perseus Books Group, which offered PGW's clients 70 cents on the dollar (see 'Perseus Makes Offer to PGW Clients') for the money owed to the publishers by PGW in exchange for distribution contracts with Perseus.

Last week the National Book Network, which is owned by the Bowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, made an offer of 85 cents on the dollar to the former PGW clients, which prompted Perseus to raise its offer.  Other factors including the length of contracts that publishers must sign in order to reclaim their fourth quarter revenues and a publisher's ability to opt out of a contract could also play a role in the decision.