Back to its roots
Returning somewhat whence it came, Amazon is looking to acquire UK online bookseller The Book Repository, for an undisclosed sum. Interestingly, The Book Depositary was founded by an ex-Amazon employee, Andrew Crawford, and unlike Amazon, which branched out of books, has stuck to book sales as its sole trade.
The Book Repository ships physical titles worldwide, in addition to offering a wide selection of ebooks for sale - much like Amazon already does itself. Quite what Amazon's motives are in the acquisition, therefore, is unclear, and the company isn't letting on: "Customers in more than 100 countries enjoy The Book Depository's vast selection, convenient delivery and free shipping," said Greg Greeley, Amazon's Vice President of European Retail. "The Book Depository is very focused on serving its customers around the world, and we look forward to welcoming them to the Amazon family."
Certainly Amazon doesn't need the Book Repositories infrastructure - it has that more than covered itself. It's possible that Amazon is keen to further entrench itself in the ebook market by pushing the existing customer base of the Book Repository towards its Kindle and away from competing devices. Or it could simply be that Amazon has seen the continually increasing revenues of the Book Repository, and sees it as a safe investment.
There's also the outside chance that the Dodo Press, run by the Book, which publishes hard to find out-of-print titles might be a target of this acquisition. Amazon has long been rumoured to be planning to enable writers to self-publish on its Kindle platform, and that infrastructure, of not the physical sales network, of the Book Repository might well be what attracted Amazon to make the purchase.
The deal still has to be approved by the Office of Fair Trading, which has issued an "invitation not comment." No concerns have been raised by the OFT itself, though.
