German Libreka Acquired by Danish WeDoBooks

Aarhus, Denmark – Libreka, one of Germany's leading e-book distributors, has been acquired by Danish WeDoBooks, the Nordic region's leading distributor of digital literature and provider of digital library systems. The consolidation paves the way for creating a healthy digital book market between publishers and libraries in Northern Europe.

WeDoBooks has acquired all shares in Libreka GmbH, a leading distributor of digital literature for German publishers. Libreka is the only distributor in the German market offering content from all German publishers, which is crucial for supplying libraries. The company also manages an extensive international catalog of titles and has agreements with sales channels in Europe and English-speaking countries.

With this acquisition, WeDoBooks, which also operates the digital library solutions for 98% of Scandinavia's libraries, gains easier access to offering the German library market some of the market's most modern products. The acquisition of Libreka offers significant opportunities to expand activities substantially southward, where digitalization has started to accelerate. Libreka has a wide reach through its digital distribution business, but especially in the library sector, there is a huge potential.

"Scandinavian libraries are undisputed world champions in digital lending. WeDoBooks is the largest provider of digital library systems in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. We are now bringing all that know-how and technology to the German-speaking library market, where there is great untapped potential and interest in our solutions," says Lasse Nyrup, CEO of WeDoBooks.

"Through Libreka, we gain access to a massive catalog of international content with lending rights. We have extensive experience working with various pricing models for the library market, and we firmly believe that we can bring a truly healthy balance to the relationship between publishers and libraries by offering the right combination of price models, rather than a single option for all titles. Our overriding ambition is to create a healthy and well-balanced digital book market globally, providing flexibility in pricing so that the needs of both publishers and libraries are covered. This has already been achieved in Scandinavia," Lasse Nyrup continues.

It is precisely this philosophy and ambition that has been a major motivating factor for Libreka in the dialogues leading up to the acquisition.

"We are very impressed with what WeDoBooks has achieved in a relatively short time and with a very sound approach. We believe that together we can massively boost the digital literature offering in the German-speaking market. We already have a well-developed network of publishing customers and sales channels. The opportunities to expand the customer portfolio with solutions for libraries while strengthening the book industry through a sensible and dynamic approach make us convinced that this is a dream match," says Thorsten Schreiber, CEO of Libreka.