Read All About It: Motricity Sells Its eBooks Group

Durham, N.C. — Motricity, a provider of mobile content solutions, has sold its popular eReader book site to a New Jersey firm.

According to Motricity, eReader is the “world’s largest eBook store.”

Les Hamashima, Motricity’s director of corporate communications, said the sale is part of the firm’s strategy to streamline its focus.

“As we move into 2008, we’re focused on becoming the world’s premier provider of mobile platform infrastructure,” Hamashima told WRAL Local Tech Wire. “The eReader’s business is in very good position, but has become peripheral to our core business.

“eReader.com has the best future within a dedicated content provider such as Fictionwise,” he added.

Fictionwise, an independent eBook retailer, acquired a database of 23,000 titles from Motricity along with fewer than five people who worked in that business unit at the Durham-based company.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

eReader.com is an established and major player in the mobile content marketplace with rights deals across a broad spectrum of publishers, genre and authors.

Motricity also had enabled eBooks to be downloaded and read across a wide variety of devices.

The deal comes shortly after Motricity, which is venture backed, closed on the acquisition of the mobile business unit from InfoSpace for $135 million. That transaction closed on December 31.

Current plans call for eReader.com to be maintained as an independent Web site in order to capitalize on its brand name and customer base, according to Fictionwise.

"eReader.com is one of the crown jewels of the eBook world," said Steve Pendergrast, co-founder of Fictionwise, Inc. "With this acquisition, Fictionwise breaks into the very top ranks of the eBook retail market. Synergies between our business units will open the door to some very interesting developments for our customers in the coming months."

Before the acquisition, Fictionwise offered more than 44,000 titles with works by more than 20,000 authors.

"Over the years, eReader.com nurtured and grew a loyal following of customers while pioneering methods to help raise the general adoption and consumption of eBooks, " said Chris Chuang, vice president of strategic development at Motricity. "eReader.com is a strong strategic fit with Fictionwise, not only in terms of the additional customer footprint it brings, but also in that Fictionwise is acquiring some of the leading technologies and infrastructure in the eBooks market."