[Linda Buquet]

Agreed. Just occurred to me, I don't know if they have a SEM company running their PPC but if they do maybe that's what started this. I can see a SEM company saying "your affiliates are costing you money, cut them out so you can spend more money with me" or "I can do a better job at PPC than your affiliates, don't let them do PPC it's just costing you extra money."

Whatever, but in the long run if they lose affiliates that switch to another merchant - now they have all those affiliates STILL bidding against them and driving their PPC cost up but instead of making sales FOR them, they are competing against them, making money for their competitor. Some merchants are just very short sighted or take advice from the wrong people IMHO.