ABE News
In case you missed the news today, AbeBooks Europe GmbH, the German subsidiary of the Amazon-owned
Abebooks, announced today that it has purchased ZVAB.com, the online marketplace of German rare
antiquarian books with over 3,000 professional antiquarians in 27
countries that offers customers an inventory of over 35 million used,
antiquarian, and out-of-print books in many languages (i.e, its biggest German competitor). From the release: "With its great selection of rare and antiquarian books, ZVAB.com is an
excellent complement to AbeBooks' German used and antiquarian books
offering," said Hannes Blum, CEO of AbeBooks. "We are looking forward to
working with ZVAB.com to make sure our customers can find and buy any
book provided by ZVAB.com and AbeBooks sellers fast and conveniently."
One bookseller already lamented the merger. Bruce Tober, of Books at Star Dot Star in the UK, wrote to a listserv this morning, "Choosebooks/ZVAB has just announced it's been bought by ABE. Initially - according to their announcement - all looks well. No one will notice any changes almost at all. Choosebooks will close down but ZVAB.com will remain, etc. But we all know what problems and changes such takeovers really mean in the not so long run."
One bookseller already lamented the merger. Bruce Tober, of Books at Star Dot Star in the UK, wrote to a listserv this morning, "Choosebooks/ZVAB has just announced it's been bought by ABE. Initially - according to their announcement - all looks well. No one will notice any changes almost at all. Choosebooks will close down but ZVAB.com will remain, etc. But we all know what problems and changes such takeovers really mean in the not so long run."
