Random House Joins Buylink's Wholesale Exchange; Publishing Giant Gains Instant Access to Thousands of Buyers

Business Wire, Sept 21, 2000

Business Editors

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 21, 2000

Buylink Corp., an online B2B wholesale marketplace, today announced a milestone arrangement with publishing giant Random House, in which more than 2,400 of the firm's specialty book titles will be listed on Buylink.com starting this week.

By listing its books with Buylink, the publishing house gains instant, unprecedented access to more than 9,000 of Buylink's registered specialty retailers at no cost to the publisher, according to Brian Dunning, co-founder and chief technology officer at Buylink.

The posted Random House titles will cover categories such as entertaining, arts & crafts, antiques & collectibles, cooking, holiday and travel. Vendors will be able to search for titles like Martha Stewart's "Best of Martha Stewart Living Weddings," "Tiger Woods Way" by John Andrisani, and Anita Liberty's "Little Red Barn Baking Book."

As a registered Buylink vendor, Random House will reach thousands of small and mid-sized retailers -- the core target market for the publisher's specialty book line. Registered retailers will be able to view the cover of each book, a product description and all necessary ordering information, including the MSRP and the vendor's minimum order level. The Buylink.com ordering process is an intuitive, step-by-step click-through that features a "shopping cart" interface.

"We are very pleased to have such a recognizable name as Random House on Buylink. They are the first large-scale book publisher to sign on," said Buylink's Dunning. "This deal significantly bolsters our offerings in the specialty book category. 2,400 different titles from a major publisher is a substantial benefit for our retail subscribers."

About Buylink Corporation

Buylink Corporation is an online marketplace that brings thousands of manufacturers of specialty merchandise together with merchants and sales representatives from around the globe. The company provides a nexus for the specialty consumer goods industry by linking vendors with retailers. Buylink brings fresh, vendor-updated product lines to merchants that need the latest products quickly. For vendors, Buylink allows overnight exposure to thousands of active retailer accounts for a zero customer acquisition cost. Premier venture capital firm Hummer Winblad Venture Partners is the lead investor in the company. For more information, visit www.buylink.com.

About Random House

Random House Inc. is the world's largest English-language general trade book publisher. It is a division of the Bertelsmann Book Group of Bertelsmann AG, one of the foremost media companies in the world. Random House Inc. assumed its current form with its acquisition by Bertelsmann in 1998, which brought together the imprints of the former Random House Inc. with those of the former Bantam Doubleday Dell. Random House Inc.'s publishing groups include Ballantine Books, the Bantam Dell Publishing Group, the Crown Publishing Group, the Doubleday Broadway Publishing Group, the Knopf Publishing Group, the Random House Audio Publishing Group, the Random House Children's Books, the Random House Diversified Publishing Group, the Random House Information Group, and the Random House Trade Publishing Group.