Potential Apple/Goodreads Partnership Quashed by Amazon Acquisition

Goodreads 1Before 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.

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.

Popular Stories

iPhone SE 4 Vertical Camera Feature

iPhone SE 4 Production Will Reportedly Begin Ramping Up in October

Tuesday July 23, 2024 2:00 pm PDT by
Following nearly two years of rumors about a fourth-generation iPhone SE, The Information today reported that Apple suppliers are finally planning to begin ramping up mass production of the device in October of this year. If accurate, that timeframe would mean that the next iPhone SE would not be announced alongside the iPhone 16 series in September, as expected. Instead, the report...
iPhone 17 Plus Feature

iPhone 17 Lineup Specs Detail Display Upgrade and New High-End Model

Monday July 22, 2024 4:33 am PDT by
Key details about the overall specifications of the iPhone 17 lineup have been shared by the leaker known as "Ice Universe," clarifying several important aspects of next year's devices. Reports in recent months have converged in agreement that Apple will discontinue the "Plus" iPhone model in 2025 while introducing an all-new iPhone 17 "Slim" model as an even more high-end option sitting...
Generic iPhone 17 Feature With Full Width Dynamic Island

Kuo: Ultra-Thin iPhone 17 to Feature A19 Chip, Single Rear Camera, Semi-Titanium Frame, and More

Wednesday July 24, 2024 9:06 am PDT by
Apple supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo today shared alleged specifications for a new ultra-thin iPhone 17 model rumored to launch next year. Kuo expects the device to be equipped with a 6.6-inch display with a current-size Dynamic Island, a standard A19 chip rather than an A19 Pro chip, a single rear camera, and an Apple-designed 5G chip. He also expects the device to have a...
iPhone 16 Pro Sizes Feature

iPhone 16 Series Is Less Than Two Months Away: Everything We Know

Thursday July 25, 2024 5:43 am PDT by
Apple typically releases its new iPhone series around mid-September, which means we are about two months out from the launch of the iPhone 16. Like the iPhone 15 series, this year's lineup is expected to stick with four models – iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max – although there are plenty of design differences and new features to take into account. To bring ...
icloud private relay outage

iCloud Private Relay Experiencing Outage

Thursday July 25, 2024 3:18 pm PDT by
Apple’s iCloud Private Relay service is down for some users, according to Apple’s System Status page. Apple says that the iCloud Private Relay service may be slow or unavailable. The outage started at 2:34 p.m. Eastern Time, but it does not appear to be affecting all iCloud users. Some impacted users are unable to browse the web without turning iCloud Private Relay off, while others are...

Top Rated Comments

MattJessop Avatar
147 months ago
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.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
question fear Avatar
147 months ago
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.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Chupa Chupa Avatar
147 months ago
Meh. iBooks is fine on its own.


Right, which is exactly why Apple wanted to do a partnership w/ them... because they understand iBooks is fine in its own vacuum. :rolleyes:

The # of heads in sand around here is astonishing. No company, no product survives resting on its own laurels. In this case even the #1 digital bookseller thought Goodreads was important enough to just buy the entire company. But, right, iBooks is fine doing nothing to expand interest in the face of stiff competition from Amazon and Google.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
paul4339 Avatar
147 months ago
wow, you'd think that Apple would have bought them shortly after iBooks was released (16 million members)
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Doctor Q Avatar
147 months ago
Amazon has indicated that it will keep the company as a separate entity, but will integrate its recommendations into its system going forward.
I wonder how long the semi-independence will last.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
sundog925 Avatar
147 months ago
Meh. iBooks is fine on its own.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)