To bolster its already large inventory of user reviews, Amazon has reportedly acquired Goodreads, a Web site indexing user-provided book reviews. The purchase comes at a time that rumors swirled that the review site might start selling both physical and e-books.
According to a report at Publisher’s Weekly, Goodreads.com holds 16 million members, many of whom are likely already Amazon purchasers. The site services 300,000 book clubs. Goodreads was originally generated as a book recommendation engine to aim users at books based on what friends were reading.
The purchase is subject to normal regulatory concerns, and is expected to close in the second quarter of 2013. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
