Overstock undercuts Amazon pricing

Online retailer Overstock.com is directly targeting Amazon.com with a new strategy that offers best-selling books priced 25 percent below what Amazon is charging for the same titles. , a Web-based closeout specialist, reported Tuesday that it would offer 25 percent off Amazon's prices for books currently on The New York Times best-seller Lists, Publisher's Weekly best-seller lists and even those books ranked among Amazon's own 100 best-sellers.

Overstock executives called the strategy an "experiment" and said the offer will last throughout the month of September. "We're interested in seeing how customers respond to such significant discounts on the most popular titles," said Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne, in a statement.