Alibris

Alibris

Company type	Privately held company
Industry	Specialty retail
Founded	1997 in Emeryville, California, United States
Headquarters	Emeryville, California, United States
Key people	Anindo Dey - Chief Executive Officer Erich Heston - Chief Financial Officer David Fisher - Vice President of Engineering Michael Warchut - Director of IS&T
Products	Used books, out-of-print books, rare books. Also offers used or collectible games, music, and movies (including albums, cassette tapes, compact discs, and DVDs)
Revenue	$100 million (as of August 15, 2013)
Number of employees	25 (as of December 1, 2019)
Website	www.alibris.com

Alibris operates as an online marketplace specializing in new titles, used books, out-of-print books, and rare volumes, along with other media items sourced through a network of independent booksellers.

History

In 1997, Martin Manley established Alibris alongside the team responsible for the early online book platform Interloc, which was subsequently acquired by Alibris. Interloc originated in 1994 through the collaboration of bookseller Richard Weatherford, programmer Tom Sawyer, and technology expert Brad Councilman.Template:Fix/category

As one of the pioneering platforms to consolidate used book information online, Interloc operated as a private network until 1996. That year marked the launch of its website developed using Thunderstone Texis technology by Senior Engineer Michael Warchut. Later, on October 23, 1998 at 2:30 PM EST, the Alibris website debuted, also engineered by Michael Warchut.Template:Fix/category

The formal incorporation of Alibris took place in 1998.Template:Fix/category

In October 1999, Alibris expanded its operations by acquiring Bibliocity.

Initially supported by venture capital funding, Alibris transitioned ownership in 2006 when acquired by Oak Hill Capital Partners, a private equity firm. In February 2010, Oak Hill Capital Partners purchased Monsoon and integrated it with Alibris under Monsoon Commerce's ownership. As of February 2017, AM Holding Inc. (formerly Monsoon Commerce Inc.) held ownership of Alibris. Later that year, Alibris Holding divested Monsoon Commerce based in Portland and Stonegde Technologies located in Collegeville, Pennsylvania; subsequently in June 2017, Alibris was sold to a private investor.Template:Fix/category

Alibris continues to operate as a privately owned entity.

Company

Alibris enables booksellers to list their collections on its platform, which then displays these titles across its own retail website, a dedicated library services portal, and through partnerships with business clients including Barnes & Noble, Half Price Books, Walmart, and eBay. The company also serves customers in the United Kingdom via the Alibris.co.uk site. Its extensive network, comprising over 6,000 booksellers from 65 countries, offers access to more than 250 million book listings.

Typically, individual sales processed through Alibris are shipped directly from the bookseller to the buyer. However, orders destined for libraries, institutional clients, or requiring international shipping are routed through a centralized distribution hub located in Sparks, Nevada. In addition to books, Alibris maintains comparable networks for music formats such as albums, cassette tapes, and CDs, as well as for movie formats like VHS and DVD.

The platform supports simultaneous buying and selling activities for users. Fees imposed by Alibris include an initial listing charge that varies depending on the product category and the commission structure applied.

Alibris was among the founding participants of the Google eBooks initiative when it was launched by Google on December 6, 2010.

See also

• AbeBooks
• Better World Books
• Biblio.com
• List of online booksellers
• musicMagpie
• World of Books