Amazon.com Will Acquire Goodreads

Update 2: AllThingsD/WSJ: “Actually, Amazon Paid About $150 Million for Goodreads”

According to sources, Amazon paid about $150 million for Goodreads, the popular books recommendation service. But that number could close in on $200 million, if certain performance metrics are met.

Update: Read What Goodreads CEO, Otis Chandler Has to Say About the Amazon Acquisition
From the Blog Post:

It’s important to be clear that Goodreads and the awesome team behind it are not going away. Goodreads will continue to be the wonderful community that we all cherish. We plan to continue offering you everything that you love about the site—the ability to track what you read, discover great books, discuss and share them with fellow book lovers, and connect directly with your favorite authors—and your reviews and ratings will remain here on Goodreads. And it’s incredibly important to us that we remain a home for all types of readers, no matter if you read on paper, audio, digitally, from scrolls, or even stone tablets.
For all of you Kindle readers, there’s obviously an extra bonus in this announcement. You’ve asked us for a long time to be able to integrate your Kindle and Goodreads experiences. Making that option a reality is one of our top priorities

Update 2: Goodreads Investor Jon Callaghan On Amazon Acquisition Of ‘Scrappy’ Startup (via Forbes)
Update 3: LibraryThing: How to succeed in an Amazon/Goodreads world (via LibraryThing Blog)
Written by LibraryThing Founder, Tim Spalding. He discusses a variety of issues including Amazon’s stake in LibraryThing.
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Here’s the Full Text of the Amazon.com Acquisition Announcement:

Amazon.com, Inc. today announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire Goodreads, a leading site for readers and book recommendations that helps people find and share books they love.
“Amazon and Goodreads share a passion for reinventing reading,” said Russ Grandinetti, Amazon Vice President, Kindle Content. “Goodreads has helped change how we discover and discuss books and, with Kindle, Amazon has helped expand reading around the world. In addition, both Amazon and Goodreads have helped thousands of authors reach a wider audience and make a better living at their craft. Together we intend to build many new ways to delight readers and authors alike.”
“Books – and the stories and ideas captured inside them – are part of our social fabric,” said Otis Chandler, Goodreads CEO and co-founder. “People love to talk about ideas and share their passion for the stories they read. I’m incredibly excited about the opportunity to partner with Amazon and Kindle. We’re now going to be able to move faster in bringing the Goodreads experience to millions of readers around the world. We’re looking forward to inspiring greater literary discussion and helping more readers find great books, whether they read in print or digitally.”
“I just found out my two favorite people are getting married,” said Hugh Howey, best-selling author of WOOL. “The best place to discuss books is joining up with the best place to buy books – To Be Read piles everywhere must be groaning in anticipation.”
Following the acquisition, Goodreads’s headquarters will remain in San Francisco, CA. Founded in 2007, Goodreads now has more than 16 million members and there are more than 30,000 books clubs on the Goodreads site. Over just the past 90 days, Goodreads members have added more than four books per second to the “want to read” shelves on Goodreads.
Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Subject to various closing conditions, the acquisition is expected to close in the second quarter of 2013.

Background

This is not for the first time Amazon.com has acquired a property in the social reading space.
Amazon acquired Shelfari in 2008 after investing $1 million dollars in the company a year earlier.
See Also: Amazon has a 40% stake in LibraryThing (it came by way of Amazon’s acquisition of AbeBooks). Note: Tim Spalding discusses this in a LibraryThing post.
See Also:  On Discovery, Ebook Formats, and More: Results of a Goodreads Member Survey (February 27, 2013)
See Also: Video Presentation: Goodreads VP on “The Mechanics of Book Recommendation Engines” (April 16, 2012)
See Also: Interview with Otis Chandler, CEO of Goodreads (by Jeremy Greenfield, Digital Book World; November 8, 2012)

Filed under: Interviews, Journal Articles, Profiles, School Libraries