Abebooks.com Acquires Europe's JustBooks; Growth Continues for Profitable Abebooks.com with Expansion in European Book Market

Business Wire, Oct 3, 2001

Business Editors

VICTORIA, British Columbia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 3, 2001

Abebooks.com (Advanced Book Exchange Inc.; www.abebooks.com), the world's largest source for out-of-print and hard-to-find books, announced today it has acquired JustBooks (JustBooks.de GmbH), one of the major online platforms for used and antiquarian books in Europe.

The JustBooks acquisition will allow abebooks.com to accelerate its growth in Europe and expand its already unprecedented book inventory and renowned customer support. Together, abebooks.com and JustBooks will share an international membership of 10,000 book dealers and nearly 35 million books, serving customers in English, German and French.

"Whereas other Internet companies may be struggling to achieve profitability, abebooks.com has been profitable from the outset," says abebooks.com CEO Brent James. "We see this as a unique opportunity to use our solid financial position as a basis for growth and expansion. We expect significant growth from our new operations in Europe."

Abebooks.com brings to the agreement a scalable database technology and experience that will accommodate its continued growth. In turn, abebooks.com will benefit from JustBooks' multilingual capabilities and intimate knowledge of the European culture and book industry.

"JustBooks is a great fit for us," says James. "Further expansion into the international marketplace will power our shared vision of becoming the global leader in the out-of-print book industry."

ABOUT JUSTBOOKS

JustBooks is one of the largest Internet second-hand book platforms in Europe. In total, JustBooks lists over 5 million books supplied by approximately 1000 dealers on their English (www.justbooks.co.uk), French (www.justbooks.fr) and German (www.justbooks.de) websites. JustBooks currently serves over 125,000 registered users.

ABOUT ABEBOOKS.COM

Canadian-based abebooks.com is the world's largest book site, with over 8,800-member book dealers around the world. The web site provides independent booksellers with business support, technological infrastructure, and international marketing, enabling booksellers of any size to compete on an equal footing with book superstores. Launched on the Internet in May of 1996, abebooks.com offers consumers the most complete collection of rare, used, and out-of-print books available anywhere. The site now lists over 30 million books.