Amazon acquires books-recommendations service Goodreads

Amazon announced today it has acquired Goodreads, a website that gives you personalized recommendations for books.

Neither company disclosed the deal’s terms, but Amazon revealed that the acquisition should close by the end of Q2 2013. The Goodreads team will remain in San Francisco, the city where the company was founded.

This news comes a few months after ReadWrite reported that Goodreads “gave up” on Amazon, citing “restrictions.” Goodreads could not link to competing bookstores while using Amazon’s API.

It’s likely that Amazon bought Goodreads to augment its Kindle product. However, the e-commerce giant acquired competing service Shelfari several years ago, and hasn’t done much with it.

The official word is that an acquisition was almost inevitable — and is mutually beneficial.

“Amazon and Goodreads share a passion for reinventing reading,” said Russ Grandinetti, Amazon’s vice president of Kindle content, in a statement. “Goodreads has helped change how we discover and discuss books and, with Kindle, Amazon has helped expand reading around the world.”

Goodreads’ CEO Otis Chandler added that the company will continue to support readers of print and digital content. He said the acquisition will help them “move faster in bringing the Goodreads experience to millions of readers.” He said in a blog post that Amazon agreed the company would remain an “independent entity,” so don’t expect sweeping changes to the Goodreads brand.

Goodreads has raised $2.75 million in funding since it launched in 2007, and claims to have almost 7 million registered users.