Amazon is closing its online bookstore and competitor, Book Depository, which it acquired in 2011.
The news comes hot on the heels of a string of cuts at the internet giant, with two separate layoffs affecting at least 27,000 people in various divisions, including the profitable AWS cloud unit and the devices and books business. is giving
The Book Depository (originally of Book Depository) was a direct competitor to Amazon’s flagship online bookselling business, shipping millions of books to readers in over 100 countries. At the time of the acquisition, some were concerned that it signaled Amazon’s growing “control” over the UK online book market. However, despite industry protests, the deal eventually received regulatory approval, and the Office of Fair Trade (OFT) at the time said Book Depository was not a true competitor due to its relative size. I affirmed.
In the previous years, Amazon had done little to integrate Book Depository, at least from a branding perspective. In fact, the Book Depository website never gave any visible indication that it was owned by Amazon. It’s taken a similar approach with other similar acquisitions he’s made in the space, such as his Goodreads, a social reading platform he acquired in 2013.
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Publishing industry trade outlet first reported bookstore Today (with a paywall), Book Depository posted a closure notice on its website, revealing that it will cease to exist after April 26, 2023. The company says it will continue to process all orders and provide support until June 23, 2023.
In fact, given Amazon’s recent activity elsewhere, it shouldn’t be all that surprising. Notably, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has previously admitted that the book business will be affected by layoffs.
But a few weeks ago, Amazon announced that it was shutting down the respected UK-based camera review site DPReview, which it first acquired in 2007. Some checkout-free Amazon Go stores are also closed in the UK, including brick-and-mortar bookstores. The company is also discontinuing Amazon Drive, a consumer file storage service.
It’s not clear how many people were working in the Book Depository side of the business, or if any will be relocated elsewhere. An Amazon spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch that “we have made the difficult decision to close Book Depository,” without providing further details.
