It’s been a big day here in the Pacific Northwest. Amazon, subject to closing conditions, has reached an agreement to acquire AbeBooks. The deal has to go through regulatory approval and is expected to close before the end of 2008.
So what does that mean for AbeBooks.com? Well, firstly we’re going to continue as a stand-alone business based in Victoria, British Columbia. Our name isn’t changing, our websites remain the same, our staff remains the same, our business model remains the same, we’re not moving from our offices here or in Dusseldorf, Germany. It’s business as usual for us.
We’re exceptionally excited about working with Amazon - AbeBooks has been very successful over the years but we know Amazon is the world leader in ecommerce and they can help us in many ways. They are going to help our booksellers sell more books and they are going to help improve the experience of buying books for our customers.
Amazon has a successful track record of acquiring companies and letting them operate as independent businesses - a good example is Shopbop.com, which was bought in 2006.
A group of people from Amazon visited our office on Thursday and addressed our staff, with the public announcement coming today. We’re thrilled about what the future holds for us, AbeBooks, our sellers and our buyers. Exciting times.
Hello Mac
Don’t worry, we’re not going anywhere. Some folks from Amazon came to our office last week and spoke to us for a long time. The first thing they said is they don’t want to spoil a successful formula. They want to help us do what we already do well.
Regards
Richard
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