11 replies to this topic

[martini]

Victoria's AbeBooks sold to Amazon.com
Price rumoured at between $90 and $120 million

Andrew Duffy
Victoria Times Colonist

Friday, August 01, 2008

Hannes Blum, CEO of AbeBooks, an online book-selling giant.


Victoria's AbeBooks, the world's largest online marketplace for new, used and rare books, has been bought by online giant Amazon.com.

A purchase price was not disclosed, but Techvibes.com estimated it was likely to have been between $90-120 million, a figure some shareholders said appeared to be accurate.

AbeBooks, which has more than 110 million books listed for sale by thousands of independent booksellers from around the world, was founded in 1995 by Rick and Vivian Pura and Keith and Cathy Waters. It is currently majority owned by Hubert Burda Media of Germany although there are a number of smaller shareholders - mostly current and former employees.

"As a leader in rare and hard-to-find books, AbeBooks brings added breadth and expanded selection to our customers worldwide," said Russell Grandinetti, vice president of books for Seattle-based Amazon.com. "AbeBooks provides a wide range of services to both sellers and customers, and we look forward to working with them to further grow their business. We're excited to present all of our customers with the widest selection of books available any place on Earth."

"This deal brings together book sellers and book lovers from around the world, and offers both types of customers a great experience," said Hannes Blum, CEO of AbeBooks. "We are very excited to be joining the Amazon family."

But it's not clear if many of the independent online booksellers who list their inventories with Abebooks will feel the same way.

The admittedly cozy relationship Abebooks had with its sellers was tested earlier this year when the company instituted a new fee structure.

At the time, Christine Volk, a California bookseller and vice president of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, said Abebooks had always been considered the most bookseller friendly in the online marketplace and their corporatization was going to threaten that distinction.

"Amazon has always been a big corporation, Alibris is now trying to be a big corporation," she said, referring to the two other big players in the market. "But now Abe has grown and tried to model itself on the larger companies. There is a sense of frustration and disappointment that Abe is not sticking to what it started out to be which was, 'we'll never get in between the buyers and booksellers.'"

According to a release from Amazon.com, AbeBooks will continue to function as a stand-alone operation based in Victoria, it will maintain all of its websites, including its Canadian website with Canada-specific content, such as reviews of Canadian-authored books and interviews of Canadian writers.

Abebooks which has global websites Abebooks.com, Abebooks.ca, Abebooks.co.uk, Abebooks.de, Abebooks.fr, Abebooks.it and Iberlibro.com has affiliates in Germany and the U.S.

Internet Retailer magazine ranked AbeBooks at No. 73 among North American online retailers in June 2008.

Amazon.com, online since 1995, bills itself as offering earth's biggest selection, period, as it aims to be the world's most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online.

Amazon and its affiliates operate websites, Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.jp, Amazon.fr, Amazon.ca.

aduffy@tc.canwest.com
© Victoria Times Colonist 2008

http://www.canada.co...4d-f1deb891ca2f

[Mike K.]

This was bound to happen, I suppose.

My biggest concern is whether or not Abebooks will retain upper management positions in Victoria. Victoria desperately needs such jobs.

[Holden West]

^Mike, when I think of similar local stories like Disney Interactive Victoria, the answer is probably no.

[Mike K.]

Yup. You're right about Disney.

[spanky123]

I would suspect that you see a downsizing over time at Abebooks. I would imagine that management would hang around for a little while to see the company through the acquisition but after that I am sure that they will be on to their next project.

Accounting, network admin, hr will probably all go to Amazon.

I can see them retaining some developers and customer support people but that would be it.

[Ms. B. Havin]

Let's not forget that Abebooks has been morphing for a long time (it was acquired by Burda Media in 2002; Boris Wertz, who came on board, left Abebooks for Vancouver nearly a year ago to head up the venture capital arm of Burda, etc.), so it's not the case that Abebooks was an all-Victoria or even all-BC company just a day or two ago.

That said, Amazon is a different kind of animal for sure. If Abebooks weren't a Canadian company, I wonder whether this sort of industry agglomeration wouldn't be grounds for an anti-trust investigation (not that, in the current political climate, that would go far, haha...).

Anybody remember the film Epic (on the internet)?

;-)

[amor de cosmos]

"Amazon has always been a big corporation, Alibris is now trying to be a big corporation," she said, referring to the two other big players in the market. "But now Abe has grown and tried to model itself on the larger companies. There is a sense of frustration and disappointment that Abe is not sticking to what it started out to be which was, 'we'll never get in between the buyers and booksellers.'"

What??? Amazon hasn't always been a big corporation, but the reason that it became as big as it has was because it stuck it out for as long as it took. In other words, they didn't sell out like AbeBooks did. Way to be, Abe.

[Mike K.]

Abebooks' income was partially tied to Amazon, so the acquisition makes sense from a business POV.

[Caramia]

Yes I loved Epic and every day I marvel at how bang on the predictions were. When I think of the future of VV, I take pointers from Epic's idea of what media will be like in the coming years.

[Rorschach]

I have my entire book collection on AbeBooks so I'll let you know what happens with Amazon taking over as far as affecting private book sellers.

[Caramia]

Cool Beans! I check Abe regularly, whenever I want to buy a book. Usually I end up going down and getting the book in person but I love being able to check inventory at all the local second hand bookstores.

[VicHockeyFan]

Abebooks' income was partially tied to Amazon, so the acquisition makes sense from a business POV.

Correct. **** happens, and money talks. Smart move.