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Amazon has recently acquired a Canada based company, AbeBooks. Being an online book marketplace, AbeBooks sells more than 110 million primarily used, out-of-print and rare books provided by thousands of independent sellers, providing them with a business and technological support and acting as an international marketing tool.

AbeBooks in 2002 had already collaborated with Amazon Marketplace program that help its 13,500 book sellers to boost their selling productivity. Though Amazon hasn’t provided any monetary detail about the acquisition but the deal is subjected to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals and is expected to close before the end of the fourth quarter of 2008.

The deal is quiet astonishing as Amazon claims that e-books for its Kindle device are pioneer in making the future while popular paper books help companies to robust their profit. While the current collection of books offered by AbeBooks is rare and hardly reflects future. But its acquisition does make sense as it forms Amazon’s niche who are looking for rare and books that are no more printed. As the collection comprises of different booksellers it acts as a catalyst for enhancing digital marketplace. As pointed out by Russell Grandinetti, vice president of books for Amazon:

As a leader in rare and hard-to-find books, AbeBooks brings added breadth and expanded selection to our customers worldwide. AbeBooks provides a wide range of services to both sellers and customers, and we look forward to working with them to further grow their business. We’re excited to present all of our customers with the widest selection of books available any place on Earth.

While AbeBooks CEO Dr. Hannes Blum said that after its acquisition by Amazon, AbeBooks will continue to work as an stand-alone book marketplace with an eye on its global business:

AbeBooks will continue to operate as a stand-alone business with all aspects of AbeBooks’ bookseller and customer experience remaining intact. AbeBooks’ headquarters will remain in Victoria, BC, Canada, and our European offices will remain in Dusseldorf, Germany. We will continue to support both our international marketplaces and our domestic marketplace here in Canada. I will continue to lead AbeBooks.

He praised Amazon and is happy with this deal:

This deal brings together book sellers and book lovers from around the world, and offers both types of customers a great experience. We are very excited to be joining the Amazon family.

I personally think that Amazon is moving in the right direction as Booksellers at AbeBooks will definitely experience a drastic increase in their selling because of the Amazon’s scalable User base while Amazon can get all the hand-on collection of rare books at AbeBooks. The acquisition will also help AbeBooks to retain their identity as they will continue to operate as a stand-alone entity.