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The website Fictionwise.com was launched on June 5, 2000, as a partnership between Steve Pendergrast and Mindwise Media, LLC, which is owned by Scott Pendergrast. The success of Fictionwise led to it being spun out of Mindwise Media into a separate company in October 2000. Fictionwise was acquired by Barnes & Noble on March 5, 2009, for $15.7 million in cash (plus the potential for earn-outs). Barnes & Noble said it plans to use Fictionwise as part of its overall digital strategy, which includes the launch of an e-Bookstore later this year. Most eBooks are viewed on mobile devices like Smartphones, PDAs, and eBook devices (iPhone, Symbian, Windows Mobile, Palm OS, Java ME, BlackBerry, Psion, Kindle and iLiad). On January 1, 2008, Fictionwise acquired the eReader business unit of Motricity, Inc. eReader was one of the oldest ebook sellers, originally starting under the name Peanut Press and later renamed Palm Reader when owned by Palm, Inc. By acquiring eReader, Fictionwise nearly doubled in revenue. After the eReader acquisition, Fictionwise immediately began expanding platform coverage of the eReader eBook format to include three more recent versions of the Symbian operating system, newer Mac OS X operating system, iPhone and iPod touch platforms. They also made the "Pro" versions of eReader software free, and developed the first mobile-friendly version of the eReader.com commerce site. In December 2008 Fictionwise licensed the eReader format to Lexcycle, who integrated it into their Stanza ebook reader for iPhone. Fictionwise indicated that additional licensing deals were in progress. Fictionwise released a Blackberry beta version of eReader on March 11, 2009. The company is currently developing Android, Linux, and electronic ink device versions of eReader and expects to release them in 2009 to continue expanding platform coverage of the format. |
