U.S. purchase extends Abebooks' reach
Last Updated: Wednesday, November 9, 2005 | 5:17 PM ET
CBC Arts
It's not quite a case of David swallowing Goliath, but it definitely extends the reach of Abebooks.
Abebooks.com is a network of more than 13,000 independent book sellers and publishers from more than 50 countries. It acts as a sort of broker, bringing bookseller and buyer together online.
BookFinder.com is a price comparison site. It lets buyers search through more than 100 million new, used, rare, and out-of-print books for sale from thousands of booksellers.
Abebooks was one of its customers, until it took over BookFinder, based in Berkeley, Calif., in a deal announced on Monday.
Abebooks president Hannes Blum figured it made sense to join forces with BookFinder because they work with many of the same customers.
BookFinder.com lets buyers search through book titles from thousands of retailers including A1Books, Alibris, Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble.com and Chapters.indigo.ca.
It was launched in 1997 by two University of California students, Anirvan Chatterjee and Charlie Hsu. It generates revenue by receiving a commission from purchases that result from a buyer being forwarded to a bookseller's website.
"Our goal is to help book lovers find and buy any book from any bookseller anywhere, so the acquisition of BookFinder.com makes perfect sense," Blum said.
BookFinder will remain an independent company, and will continue to operate out of Berkeley because some of its customers, such as Amazon, are competitors of Abebooks.
Like BookFinder, Abebooks never actually handles the books. Instead the book goes directly from bookseller to customer.
Abebooks sells about 20,000 books a day to customers all over the world.
It has strong links in the European market through its websites in Germany, Spain, France and Britain. Now, with the acquisition of BookFinder, Abebooks can be more competitive in those markets, Blum says.
