They didn't come to terms, that's true, but unless we saw each side's balance sheet it's hard to know where the fault lies. Supposing Hachette gets a better price - how do we know this will get passed on to authors?
This comment is still ignoring the main point. It shouldn't matter what Hachette's balance sheet currently is. The point is that Amazon appears to have complete control over it. Given that situation, it will inevitably reach zero.