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Potential Apple/Goodreads Partnership Quashed by Amazon Acquisition

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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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goodreads-1.jpg
Before Amazon's acquisition of Goodreads earlier this year, Apple had been talking to the company about a partnership between Goodreads and Apple's iBookstore.

However, once Amazon got into acquisition talks with Goodreads, those talks with Apple broke off, The Wall Street Journal is reporting.
Goodreads had proposed its reviews and ratings appear within iTunes when users searched for a title, one of the people said. iTunes has already integrated Rotten Tomatoes movie ratings in such a way. Apple was entertaining the idea, but talks didn't progress much, two of the people said.

Around March, Apple pinged Goodreads to move forward with the talks, these people said. ITunes officials were perplexed when Goodreads executives went quiet, two of the people said.
Click to expand...
Goodreads is a popular book-recommendation site that would seem to fit well into Amazon's sales recommendation system. Amazon has indicated that it will keep the company as a separate entity, but will integrate its recommendations into its system going forward.

Article Link: Potential Apple/Goodreads Partnership Quashed by Amazon Acquisition
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2013/04/18/potential-applegoodreads-partnership-quashed-by-amazon-acquisition/
question fear

question fear

macrumors 68020
Apr 10, 2003
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The "Garden" state
Doesnt sound so much like this was quashed by Amazon as "coincidentally going nowhere when Amazon came along."

If talks weren't really progressing, it's not like Amazon swooped in to destroy the deal. The headline reads like Amazon bought Goodreads just to prevent the ten people who browse iBooks from having Goodreads integrated.
 
MattJessop

MattJessop

macrumors regular
Apr 24, 2007
215
43
Manchester, UK
Am I the only one who doesn't want to see every cool little social/technology startup that gains traction just bought by Amazon/Apple/Facebook/Google/Microsoft/Samsung/Wayne Enterprises??

To it's credit Google seems to be the only one not buying up companies to stop their services being used on competitors devices.

They just shut them down 6 months later instead.
 
S

Shadowpig

macrumors newbie
Jan 24, 2013
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0
Yeah but you can't get everybody all riled up without a sensational headline.

question fear said:
Doesnt sound so much like this was quashed by Amazon as "coincidentally going nowhere when Amazon came along."

If talks weren't really progressing, it's not like Amazon swooped in to destroy the deal. The headline reads like Amazon bought Goodreads just to prevent the ten people who browse iBooks from having Goodreads integrated.
Click to expand...
 
WildCowboy

WildCowboy

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Jan 20, 2005
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question fear said:
Doesnt sound so much like this was quashed by Amazon as "coincidentally going nowhere when Amazon came along."

If talks weren't really progressing, it's not like Amazon swooped in to destroy the deal. The headline reads like Amazon bought Goodreads just to prevent the ten people who browse iBooks from having Goodreads integrated.
Click to expand...

The talks apparently were about to go somewhere. Apple called back to move forward with it, and Goodreads went silent because they were in talks with Amazon.

But no, Amazon certainly didn't do the deal to block Apple.
 
P

paul4339

macrumors 65816
Sep 14, 2009
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wow, you'd think that Apple would have bought them shortly after iBooks was released (16 million members)
 
A

appletoandroid

macrumors member
Jan 25, 2013
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0
MattJessop said:
Am I the only one who doesn't want to see every cool little social/technology startup that gains traction just bought by Amazon/Apple/Facebook/Google/Microsoft/Samsung/Wayne Enterprises??

To it's credit Google seems to be the only one not buying up companies to stop their services being used on competitors devices.

They just shut them down 6 months later instead.
Click to expand...

You're talking about Google, who is interested in ad revenue. They want to keep the user base! Where as hardware companies like Apple, Microsoft, and Samsung want you to keep buying more of their products. Google makes what, 1 physical product? The Pixel. Soon to be 2 (Glass).
 
T'hain Esh Kelch

T'hain Esh Kelch

macrumors 603
Aug 5, 2001
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Denmark
A pity, since I absolutely love Goodreads (Apart from their iOS app, which *really* needs some UI work!).

But I'd rather see Goodreads become part of Amazon than Apple, so I'm still fine.
 
kas23

kas23

macrumors 603
Oct 28, 2007
5,629
288
You snooze, you lose, Apple. You had enough money to buy thousands of GoodReads, but you let Amazon buy it up instead. And it would have not been much money at all (< $1 million).
 
M

milo

macrumors 604
Sep 23, 2003
6,891
522
iBooks is useless to me until they can be read on other devices (mac!?).
 
T

Tux Kapono

macrumors member
Jun 4, 2003
52
6
Shelfari and Goodreads are the two largest social networks for book readers. How in the world did Amazon get away with buying both of them?
 
iGrip

iGrip

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Once again Apple loses a good deal due to poor negotiation tactics. So sad.
 
P

paul4339

macrumors 65816
Sep 14, 2009
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732
kas23 said:
You snooze, you lose, Apple. You had enough money to buy thousands of GoodReads, but you let Amazon buy it up instead. And it would have not been much money at all (< $1 million).
Click to expand...

est. $150-200 million, but still quite affordable for Apple.... surprised that they even let Flixster buy Rotten Tomatoes.


.
 
Squilly

Squilly

macrumors 68020
Nov 17, 2012
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MattJessop said:
Am I the only one who doesn't want to see every cool little social/technology startup that gains traction just bought by Amazon/Apple/Facebook/Google/Microsoft/Samsung/Wayne Enterprises??

To it's credit Google seems to be the only one not buying up companies to stop their services being used on competitors devices.

They just shut them down 6 months later instead.
Click to expand...

Definitely not the only one.
 
kas23

kas23

macrumors 603
Oct 28, 2007
5,629
288
paul4339 said:
est. $150-200 million, but still quite affordable for Apple.... surprised that they even let Flixster buy Rotten Tomatoes.


.
Click to expand...

That's amazing. How does a website become so expensive. They produce no technology, no innovation, no patents, but they're worth that much? It's basically a message board. That's like saying MRs is worth $200 million.
 
IRANAPPLE

IRANAPPLE

macrumors newbie
Apr 16, 2013
3
0
Iran
MattJessop said:
Am I the only one who doesn't want to see every cool little social/technology startup that gains traction just bought by Amazon/Apple/Facebook/Google/Microsoft/Samsung/Wayne Enterprises??

To it's credit Google seems to be the only one not buying up companies to stop their services being used on competitors devices.

They just shut them down 6 months later instead.
Click to expand...

Im with you !, in most cases when enterprises buy startups they kill innovation of startups
 
Bernard SG

Bernard SG

macrumors 65816
Jul 3, 2010
1,354
7
MattJessop said:
Am I the only one who doesn't want to see every cool little social/technology startup that gains traction just bought by Amazon/Apple/Facebook/Google/Microsoft/Samsung/Wayne Enterprises??

To it's credit Google seems to be the only one not buying up companies to stop their services being used on competitors devices.

They just shut them down 6 months later instead.
Click to expand...

Well... The whole point of a startup is most of the times to be acquired by a giant. Only a tiny minority can hope of making it going public.
 
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