Abebooks.com Announces Acquisition of BookFinder.com
http://www.abebooks.com
Victoria, BC, November 8, 2005--(T-Net)--Abebooks.com has acquired BookFinder.com - the leading price comparison shopping service dedicated to books.
The acquisition unites two pioneering independent forces in Internet bookselling. Both companies are privately owned and profitable. Both companies were initially developed in 1996, support independent booksellers and share the same mission of making online book buying easy.
BookFinder.com lets buyers search through over 100 million new, used, rare, and out-of-print books for sale from thousands of booksellers. Partners include A1Books, Abebooks, Alibris, Amazon.com and its global network of sites, Barnes & Noble.com, Biblio.com, Buy.com, Chapters.indigo.ca, ILAB (International League of Antiquarian Booksellers), Overstock.com and Powell's Books.
Berkeley-based BookFinder.com and its staff will join the Abebooks family but operate independently, remain unchanged and continue to be located in California. BookFinder.com will receive immediate access to Abebooks' resources to fuel growth.
"Our goal is to help booklovers find and buy any book from any bookseller anywhere, so the acquisition of BookFinder.com makes perfect sense," said Hannes Blum, Abebooks president and CEO. "Like us, BookFinder.com is dedicated to books and makes finding them simple. Part of the site's success can be attributed to its integrity and we are committed to maintaining BookFinder.com's unbiased independence. Our focus will be to continue the BookFinder.com success story."
Anirvan Chatterjee, CEO and co-founder of BookFinder.com, said: "This is an exciting opportunity for BookFinder.com to develop and grow. With access to Abebooks' skills, resources and funding, we will be able to expand and help many more book-buyers find and buy books. We have known Abebooks for eight years and always enjoyed an excellent relationship, so we are looking forward to working with the Abebooks team."
BookFinder.com was founded by Chatterjee, a then-University of California, Berkeley undergraduate, and Charlie Hsu, an undergraduate from the University of California, Davis. It generates revenue by receiving a commission from purchases that result from a buyer being forwarded to a bookseller's website. Hundreds of thousands of book searches are conducted daily.
The acquisition comes with online retailing enjoying unprecedented growth in used books. In September, the Book Industry Study Group's report revealed the used book business was worth $2.2 billion in sales last year with ecommerce sales enjoying growth of 38% from 2003 to 2004.
Based in Victoria, BC, Abebooks connects buyers with sellers via its five websites. It is dedicated solely to books and does not compete with its booksellers by also owning and selling books. The purchase of BookFinder.com continues Abebooks' growth through organic development and acquisition. In October 2004, Iberlibro.com, a Spanish online marketplace for books, was bought to complement the Abebooks sites for North America, Germany, France and UK.
About Abebooks.com
Abebooks.com is the world’s largest online marketplace for books, with over 70 million new, used, rare, and out-of-print titles listed for sale by more than 13,000 independent booksellers from around the world. Abebooks has millions of customers who collectively purchase around 20,000 books a day from its 5 global websites (Abebooks.com, Abebooks.co.uk, Abebooks.de, Abebooks.fr and Iberlibro.com). A true internet success story, Abebooks.com has been selling books online since 1996, and is a private company based in Victoria, BC Canada, with offices in Germany and Spain. Internet Retailer magazine ranked Abebooks at No. 58 among North American online retailers in June 2005.
About BookFinder.com
BookFinder.com was originally developed in 1996 by founder Anirvan Chatterjee as a University of California, Berkeley class project. In 1999, Chatterjee partnered with Charlie Hsu to relaunch an unprecedented literary shopping engine. With over 100 million books available for sale, BookFinder.com has the largest searchable book inventory available, online or off. The free web service allows readers to comparison shop for new, used, rare, out-of-print, and international books.
Contacts:
Richard Davies, PR & Publicity Mgr., Abebooks.com
Office Ph: 250-412-3238 / cell 250-514-9160 / email rdavies@abebooks.com
Barbara Franzoia, PR, BookFinder.com
Office ph: 415-291-0243 / cell 415-902-4610 / email barbara@franzoia.com