Amazon Buys AbeBooks

Amazon has acquired AbeBooks for an undisclosed amount, reports The Bookseller. Russell Grandinetti, vice president of books for Amazon.com, is quoted in an Amazon press release announcing the deal:

As a leader in rare and hard-to-find books, AbeBooks brings added breadth and expanded selection to our customers worldwide … 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.

Update: Peter Brantley notes via his Read 20 list that Amazon’s acquisition of AbeBooks will also make it a minority investor in LibraryThing. From the LibraryThing blog:

AbeBooks owns a minority stake in LibraryThing. This means that,
after regulatory approval and finalization, Amazon will become, through AbeBooks, a minority investor in LibraryThing.

Amazon has also invested in Shelfari, one of LibraryThing’s competitors.

(Via Jose Afonso Furtado’s Twitter stream)

tags: , , ,