MAIN NEWS HEADLINES
August 28 – September 4, 2008 Edition

Amazon.com
Buys Shelfari
Networking Site

SEATTLE, WA/8/26/08–Shelfari, the social network site for book lovers, has been acquired by Amazon.com, according to Shelfari CEO Josh Hug’s blog post yesterday.

“This is a very exciting day for the entire Shelfari team and community, and we are thrilled to join the Amazon family,” said Hugs.”Amazon and Shelfari have big plans ahead. With more resources and Amazon’s expertise in building a platform where people come to share ideas, there are a lot of new opportunities in the future that will benefit each of you. In the meantime, you’ll continue to have access to the great community and tools that you’ve always known and used on the site.”

Shelfari is among several book site acquisitions made by Amazon this year. In early 2008, Amazon bought Audible.com, and earlier this month announced it had acquired Abebooks.com. Abebooks owns a 40% share of Library Thing, Shelfari’s chief rival. No information was available on what Amazon plans to do with Library Thing, or when the deal with Shelfari will be completed.

Shelfari, launched in 2006, has one million users.