The owner of Australian electronics retailer digiDirect has bought out Booktopia, Australia’s largest online bookseller.
It comes after the platform went into voluntary administration last month.
Booktopia’s value has declined significantly since it became a publicly listed company on the ASX in 2020, with its share price dropping from $2.30 to 4.5 cents in that time.
Its new owner is set to hire 100 new employees to “enable the immediate resumption” of sales.
Booktopia
Booktopia announced a planned restructure in June, including at least 50 possible job cuts.
The following month, independent administrators were appointed to wrap up operations or sell it.
The Australian book-selling platform lost money in the 2021/22 and 2022/23 financial years.
Its latest financial statement showed further losses for the last six months of 2023.
Who bought Booktopia?
digiDirect owner Shant Kradjian has taken over Booktopia. It’s not clear how much the company paid for the online retailer.
Administrators said they would facilitate meetings with people and companies to whom Booktopia owed money when it entered administration.
This suggests the sale price wasn’t enough to resolve the company’s debts.
