Tesco apes Sainsbury’s with ebook move
Tesco has bought ebook company Mobcast in the latest move by the supermarkets to grow their share of the digital entertainment market.
Mobcast will sit alongside online video streaming platform BlinkBox in which Tesco has an 80% stake and We7, the music streaming platform Tesco acquired in June.
Tesco says the £4.5m deal “further strengthens” its digital entertainment offer and provides customers more choice in how they buy and enjoy books.
Mobcast is a digital book retail platform and has a catalogue of more than 130,000 titles that can be read on smartphones, tablets and e-readers.
Users can also store their ebook library in a cloud based storage system which means customers can access content on a number of devices rather than it being locked on to one device.
Michael Comish, CEO of Tesco Digital Entertainment, says: “We want our customers to have the widest choice in digital entertainment. We are already one of the UK’s largest booksellers and
Mobcast will help us offer even more choice for the large and growing number of customers who want to buy and enjoy books on their digital devices whenever and wherever they want.”
Mobcast was co-founded by bestselling author Andy McNab, in 2007.
The move follows a similar acquisition by rival Sainsbury’s. It bought a 64% stake in social network-style e-book retailer Anobii from HMV for £1in June.
Sainsbury’s has also launched a movie streaming service and an MP3 download platform under its entertainment brand.
