Ed Champion thinks that Google will buy a publisher next year.

Point 1: no offense, but you don't know Bertlesmann at all if you think they're going to sell off a book publishing arm. They might be grumbling about profits this year, but books are what Bertlesmann does -- it's always been the core of that company (and Bertlesmann is controlled by a family who believe in keeping up the company's traditions).

Point 2: Google is a massively profitable new-media engine of growth. Book publishers are large, expensive, complicated companies in a mature marketplace. Why on earth would Google spend massive amounts of money for an underperforming asset to possibly make it slightly easier to do something they're already doing and insist they already have the rights to do?