or Godzilla buys Frankenstein. Throngs still waiting for Superman.It will be a long time before the dust settles on this seismic event but here are some initial thoughts on the acquisition.First - How much did it cost?The folks over at TechVibes venture a guess that Amazon paid between $90-$120 million. Since Boris Wertz, former COO of AbeBooks, is on the Board of Directors of both TechVibes and AbeBooks, I'm going to believe the number is somewhere in that ballpark.Winners:AbebooksHits a home run. They have been steadily building their offerings through there own acquisitions preparing themselves for a potential buyout. Many...
Amazon’s Acquisition of AbeBooks: A Response From Brian Elliott, CEO of Alibris
I asked Brian Elliott, CEO of Alibris, his take on Amazon's acquisition of AbeBooks and how it might effect the overall used, rare, and out-of-print online market and Alibris in particular. Though he chose not to address the questions directly he does provide a glimpse into Alibris's current strategy.Brian Elliott- While I won't comment on Amazon and ABEbooks (they have enough to explain on their own), I'm glad to lay out what we're doing at Alibris. We see plenty of growth ahead, which we plan to help drive.We've been focusing this year on growing our sales for sellers, and improving...
Amazon’s Acquisition of AbeBooks: Brendan Sherar, CEO of Biblio.com, Weighs In
Brendan Sherar, CEO of Biblio.com was kind enough to answer a couple of questions regarding Amazon's acquisition of AbeBooks and how it might effect the overall used, rare, and out-of-print online market and Biblio in particular.Book Patrol-What effect do think Amazon's acquisition of AbeBooks will have on the used, rare, and out-of-print online market? Brendan Sherar -I believe it is unhealthy for the overall market, because it further removes competition and choices for collectors, readers, and booksellers alike. In a free market economy, that is generally accepted to be a bad thing. When competition and choice are reduced or eliminated,...
Breaking News: Amazon buys AbeBooks
The king of online bookselling just got stronger. No details of the transaction where disclosed and the deal expects to close in the fourth quarter of 2008.Amazon Press ReleaseAbeBooks Press Release forthcomingBook Patrol take forthcomingTim Spalding's post over at The LibraryThing blog (AbeBooks is a minority stakeholder in LibraryThing)This is a huge acquisition with tremendous implications for the bookselling trade. In one fell swoop the industry as been turned on its head, again!
An Interview With AbeBooks CEO, Dr. Hannes Blum
AbeBooks.com is one of the world's leading marketplaces for new, used, rare, and out of print books with over 13,000 vendors offering over 110 million books. I recently had a chance to interview their CEO, Dr. Hannes Blum. An edited version of the interview will appear in the July issue of Amphora.*********************************************************************************************************Book Patrol - Firstly, I want to thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule, it is appreciated.AbeBooks recently announced its acquisition of Chrislands, a website provider for online booksellers. This comes on the heels of AbeBooks previous acquisitions of Fillz and BookFinder.The earlier acquisitions of...