Amazon Gobbles Used Book E-Tailer
On a day when the stock market was bleeding, Amazon announced that it had acquired the Canada-based used book e-tailer, AbeBooks. A press release dated December 1st said that Amazon was announcing:
Not sure what this merger will mean, but it’s nice to hear about growth and acquisitions at a time when a lot of news has been less than good.
the completion of its acquisition of AbeBooks. AbeBooks is an online marketplace for books, with over 110 million primarily used, rare and out-of-print books listed for sale by thousands of independent booksellers from around the world. Amazon.com previously announced that it had reached an agreement to acquire AbeBooks on Aug. 1, 2008.Which sent me scurrying over there looking for content, as I hadn’t realized they generated any. And it’s there: I found it. But they do an excellent job of keeping it buried.
AbeBooks will continue to function as a stand-alone operation based in Victoria, British Columbia. AbeBooks will maintain all its Web sites, including its Canadian Web site. The Web sites will continue to have country-specific content, such as reviews of Canadian-authored books and interviews of Canadian writers.
Not sure what this merger will mean, but it’s nice to hear about growth and acquisitions at a time when a lot of news has been less than good.
Labels: Book Business
posted by Linda L. Richards at 1:25 PM
3 Comments:
Normally I would be upset a big name website eating up a smaller name website - but I agree this time it should be a good fit - and it would be better than having a great website like abebooks end up folding.
Abe Books announced this on its website months ago; apparently, Amazon wanted to wait awhile before making it official. This is not good news, for it increases Amazon's reach too far to make writers comfortable about the prospects of having one company control too high a percentage of the retail book market.
Malcolm
Malcolm: both Abe Books and Amazon announced the deal a while ago, but it was not official until yesterday. A subtle difference, but accurate. Until it was official, it was not news.
And I'm not sure if I agree with your assesment of the implications. Especially in the current economy. It's a new day. Everyone needs to be thinking in new ways.
Post a Comment
<< Home