Building on Amazon's commitment to customers in India, this acquisition helps Westland's authors grow their physical and digital book businesses in India
Chennai, October 28th, 2016: Amazon today announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire the publishing business of Ltd., a Trent Limited subsidiary and one of the leading publishing houses in India. The acquisition will enable Westland's authors to grow their physical and digital book businesses in India as well as expand their reach to customers globally, and continues Amazon's commitment to innovate on behalf of customers in India.
Westland is one of the largest and fastest growing publishing houses in India. The publishing lists of Westland, its imprints Tranquebar and EastWest, and imprint extension Mikros include bestselling authors Amish Tripathi, Ashwin Sanghi, Rashmi Bansal, Rujuta Diwekar, Preeti Shenoy, Devdutt Pattanaik, Christopher C Doyle, Anand Neelakantan, Anuja Chauhan, Ravi Subramanian, BKS Iyengar and Savi Sharma, among others.
“This is a great day for our authors and their readers across the globe," said Gautam Padmanabhan, CEO of Westland. "Amazon’s roots are in books and we are excited to be part of that team in the next phase of our journey.”
"In just three years we have built India's largest online store that customers can trust to find, discover and buy anything online. Our acquisition of Westland continues our commitment to India -- enabling Amazon to bring Westland's highly talented authors and their books to even more customers in India and around the world," said Amit Agarwal, Vice President and Country Manager at Amazon India. "Since investing in Westland earlier this year, we have built a great relationship with the company and its authors. With this acquisition, we are very excited to take our relationship with Westland to the next level."
Westland has a history of over 50 years in retail, distribution and publishing. Westland is an amalgamation of two companies, Westland Books Pvt. Ltd. & EastWest Books (Madras) Pvt Ltd. Under CEO Gautam Padmanabhan’s guidance, Westland is now one of the largest English language trade publishers in India.
About Westland Ltd:
Westland Ltd. is one of the top two indigenous publishing houses and one of the top publishers in India. The company’s focus shifted to publishing from distribution in 2007, and is today the fastest growing publishing house in India. The publishing lists of Westland, and its imprints Tranquebar and EastWest, include bestselling authors Amish Tripathi, Ashwin Sanghi, Rashmi Bansal, Rujuta Diwekar, Preeti Shenoy, Devdutt Pattanaik, Christopher C Doyle, Anand Neelakantan, Anuja Chauhan , Ravi Subramanian, BKS Iyengar and Savi Sharma, among others. Since Nielsen started their Bookscan in India, tracking bestselling titles across the country, Westland has consistently had a strong presence in the top 10 and top 50 bestselling charts.
About Amazon
Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, and Alexa are some of the products and services pioneered by Amazon.