Buch.de Internet stores

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buch.de internetstores AG

logo
legal form Corporation
founding 1998
Seat Munster , Germany
management
  • Roland Kölbl
Number of employees 192 (September 2013)
sales € 97.75 million (2012/13)
Branch E-commerce
As of September 30, 2013

Buch.de is based in Münster

The Buch.de Internetstores AG (proper spelling buch.de internet stores ), headquartered in Westphalian Münster was founded in 1998, online retailers .

In addition to the Buch.de online shop, the company also owned the brands bol.de and alphamusic.de. She also ran the websites of Thalia.de in Germany and Thalia.at in Austria. In addition to books, which make up around 80% of sales , the AG also had e-books , e-book readers , music, films, games, toys, software , office supplies and flowers on offer.

In March 2015, Buch.de was merged with Thalia Holding and is no longer an independent company.

history

Founding years

In 1998 Michael Urban founded Buch.de AG together with Ulrich Kuchenreuther in Ibbenbüren - Laggenbeck in the Tecklenburger Land . In previous years, he had already gained experience selling books on the Internet , initially mainly from his own publishing house, Pergamon . Buch.de AG got off to an unexpectedly successful start with sales of over DM 700,000 in just six months. Funders were quickly found for the internet book trade business idea, initially as part of a private placement. In 1999 the company went public in the Neuer Markt segment under the name Buch.de Internetstores AG. The Buch.de share was, indicative of the dot-com boom at the time, several times oversubscribed at the end of the subscription period . In the same year Buch.de began a cooperation with Phönix Montanus GmbH (now: Thalia Holding GmbH ). This was also the beginning of the participation of Douglas Holding AG; Phönix and Montanus had been united under the umbrella of Douglas Holding AG since 1994 .

expansion

In 2000 the dot-com bubble burst . Like many other so-called start-ups , Buch.de internetstores AG was also on the “death list” of the Platow letter in June 2000 , but survived this market adjustment phase of the New Economy unscathed. In the same year, the company entered into a partnership with Lufthansa Miles & More that continues to this day . At the same time, Buch.de Internetstores AG changed from being a pure Internet bookseller to an Internet book and media dealer and included music CDs in its range. In 2001 the company relocated its headquarters from Ibbenbüren to Münster (Westphalia) and acquired the Swiss Buch.ch AG. In the same year, the merger of Thalia Buchhandlungen and Phönix resulted in Thalia Holding GmbH, through which Douglas Holding AG acquired a stake in Buch.de Internetstores AG. In 2002 Buch.de acquired the Bertelsmann online brands bol.de and bol.ch. In return, the Direct Group Bertelsmann acquired shares in Buch.de and became the second largest shareholder after Thalia Holding GmbH. From 2003, Buch.de Internetstores AG was represented in the entire German-speaking area with the takeover of the Austrian domain amadeusbuch.at (today Thalia.at ) and later acquired two further Austrian online shops with lion.cc and austrobuch.at. In April 2005 the company relocated its headquarters within Münster to the Speicherstadt. In 2006 and 2007, the online retailer expanded its range to include toys and, with the acquisition of Flexist GmbH and Alphamusic GmbH, electronics and office supplies. In 2008, the tenth year of its existence, the company operated the highest number of online shops with nineteen brands in three countries. Over 100 people were employed at the company's headquarters in Münster and Winterthur (Switzerland).

Further development

In 2009 Buch.de Internetstores AG began selling e-book readers with a Sony device ; She had been offering e-books since 2002. In 2010 and 2011, the Oyo, the first electronic reader for digital books developed jointly with Thalia, came into the shops, which was replaced by the tolino in 2012 . In September 2012, the Buch.de selling Internet gate AG, the Swiss subsidiary Buch.ch AG to come up with a total of five stores in two markets - with a uniform price structure (- Germany and Austria book price to focus).

Merger with Thalia

With the resolution of the Annual General Meeting on April 2, 2014 and entry in the commercial register on May 16, 2014, the remaining minority interests (4.9%) in Buch.de were transferred to Thalia Holding in return for cash compensation ( squeeze-out ).

The company was then converted into Buch.de Internetstores GmbH and merged with Thalia Holding on March 17, 2015 . The online shop was operated directly from Thalia Holding's Münster location until it was closed on May 16, 2018.

Shareholder structure

Buch.de Internetstores AG was a public limited company under German law and listed on the regulated market. Its subscribed capital amounted to 13,389,279 euros and thus corresponded to 13.4 million no-par value bearer shares with an arithmetical par value of one euro. The main shareholder was Thalia Holding GmbH, part of Douglas Holding AG, with a stake of 95.1 percent (as of early December 2013). The complete takeover with compensation for the remaining minority shareholders took place on May 19, 2014. Shortly afterwards, the listing of the share was discontinued.

Products

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b buch.de internetstores AG: Annual Report 2013. (PDF) (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on May 28, 2014 ; Retrieved May 26, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / ag.buch.de
  2. ↑ GB archive ( Memento of the original from April 1, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / ag.buch.de
  3. ↑ buch.de internetstores AG: Annual General Meeting 2014. (PDF) (No longer available online.) April 2, 2014, archived from the original on May 28, 2014 ; Retrieved May 26, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / ag.buch.de
  4. ↑ buch.de internetstores AG: Entry of the transfer resolution in the commercial register. (PDF) (No longer available online.) May 19, 2014, archived from the original on May 28, 2014 ; Retrieved May 26, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / ag.buch.de
  5. ↑ Thalia merges online shops: buch.de goes to thalia.de In: boersenblatt.net, May 16, 2018, accessed on May 27, 2018.
  6. ↑ Annual Report 2011/2012 ( Memento of the original from March 28, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 2.5 MB) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / ag.buch.de
  7. ↑ Thalia Holding wants to take buch.de off the stock exchange . buchreport.de , December 2, 2013.
  8. ↑ buch.de internetstores AG: Entry of the transfer resolution in the commercial register. German Society for Ad-hoc Publicity , May 19, 2014, accessed on April 6, 2015 .