“Seeking to strengthen its presence on the iPhone and iPod Touch, Amazon has acquired Lexcycle, the company behind Stanza, a popular free e-book application for the iPhone, according to Lexcycle’s blog,” Brad Stone reports for The New York Times.
Stone reports, “It is not clear how much Amazon is paying for the year-old company with offices in Austin and Portland. But the move indicates Amazon wants to consolidate its position on mobile devices, particularly within Apple’s ecosystem, which may include a tablet computer later this year.”
Stone reports, “‘It’s very early days for e-books, and we believe there is a lot of innovation ahead of us,’ said Cinthia Portugal, a spokeswoman for Amazon.com. ‘Lexcycle is a smart, innovative company. and we look forward to working with them to innovate on behalf of readers.'”
Full article here.
Lexcycle’s blog post announcement:
Lexcycle has been acquired by Amazon.com!
It has been an amazing experience to see Stanza grow out of our brainstormed ideas into one of the most downloaded iPhone applications. Throughout this period we have attempted to listen to and innovate for our customers to provide a great ebook reading experience.
We are not planning any changes in the Stanza application or user experience as a result of the acquisition. Customers will still be able to browse, buy, and read ebooks from our many content partners. We look forward to offering future products and services that we hope will resonate with our passionate readers.
We are excited to join forces with a company that has innovated on behalf of readers for over a decade and is a pioneer in ebooks. Like Amazon, we believe there is a lot of innovation ahead for ebooks and we could not think of a better company to join during this exciting time.
Full blog post here.
