Tuesday, June 12, 2012

British supermarkets compete for the U.K.'s eBook business

PaidContent reports that J. Sainsbury, the third-largest supermarket chain in the U.K., has purchased a 64% stake in aNobii, a social discovery web engine for books whose other owners are HarperCollins, Penguin and Random House. Of the 64%, 45.4% came from HMV, which disposed of its ownership in aNobii after selling off Waterstones. The former owners who sold their shares of aNobii didn't value it very highly--Sainsbury's only paid £1 for its stake.

aNobii may help Sainsbury's in competition with Tesco, the biggest supermarket chain in the U.K., which has launched an eBooks store and acquired 80% of Blinkbox in order to get into on-demand movies. Both Sainsbury's and Tesco offer digital music downloads.
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