Amazon Gets the Go-Ahead from Regulators to Buy The Book Depository

Amazon has been given the go-ahead to take over The Book Depository. The online retailer made its intentions clear last July when it said it plans to acquire the book seller.  

Now, UK regulators, the Office of Fair Trading, have announced that they do not oppose the acquisition.

The main reason behind their decision was that The Book Depository had a very small piece of the market in the UK, thus the acquisition was not a threat to competition there. 

"Evidence received by the OFT during its investigation indicated that Amazon's share of the UK online book market was strong whilst The Book Depository's share of UK sales was small, accounting for between two to four per cent of online retailing of hard-copy books," the OFT said in its announcement of the decision. 

The OFT looked at various ways competition could be affected in the UK, both in the bestseller as well as in the deep-range, long tail market, and concluded that even with The Book Depository gobbled up by Amazon, there were still plenty of player left. 

Interestingly enough, the OFT cited the Amazon Marketplace several times as evidence that competition is strong. The Marketplace enables other companies to sell items, including books, on the Amazon site. 

In fact, OFT noted that The Book Depository was not a big player locally, but that its growth was mostly outside of the UK. The OFT, of course, is only concerned with the UK market.

 "The evidence showed limited competitive constraint from The Book Depository which, in fact, has shown most growth and expansion in overseas markets rather than the UK," Amelia Fletcher, OFT Chief Economist, said. 

When Amazon announced its intentions to buy The Book Depository, there were worries that it would affect the site's culture and policies as well as threaten competition in the UK. There's no way to know whether the first two fears will turn out to be accurate, but at least the latter has been cleared.