Amazon announced this morning that it has agreed to purchase used bookseller AbeBooks, an online retailer that focuses on used, rare, and out-of-print books. The terms of the deal have AbeBooks maintaining its online store, location in British Columbia, Canada, as well as its online presence, including its Canadian-book-centric reviews. Financial details were not disclosed.
AbeBooks also has an additional component for Amazon: in April of this year, the company acquired Chrislands, a Virginia-based company that develops and hosts storefronts for online booksellers. At the time of acquisition, Chrislands was hosting more than 1000 storefronts, most of which were used booksellers in the U.S., U.K, Canada, and Australia.
The move makes sense for Amazon. Used book sales are a booming business, and by acquiring a large seller, Amazon can reap more of the profits themselves instead of watching it flow through the site to other sellers. It will hopefully also allow Amazon shoppers to take advantage of the Amazon shipping prices, making used books more attractive to a large number of customers as well.
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