Waterstones is buying 115-year-old book chain Foyles, in a bid to fend off “Amazon’s siren call”.
Foyles has seven shops in the UK: its Charing Cross Road flagship, three other shops in London – at Royal Festival Hall, Waterloo and Westfield Stratford – and stores in Bristol, Birmingham and Chelmsford.
Waterstones, which is majority-owned by activist hedge fund Elliott Advisors, has 283 bookshops in the UK and northern Europe, and employs more than 3,000 booksellers. The transaction is expected to complete before the year end.
Further details on the deal, including the terms and how much was paid, have not been disclosed. However, Foyles chief executive Paul Currie and its current owner, Christopher Foyle, will leave the business.
James Daunt, Waterstones’ managing director, said: “We are honoured to be entrusted with the Foyles business, and greatly look forward to joining forces with the Foyles bookselling team. Together, we will be stronger and better positioned to protect and champion the pleasures of real bookshops in the face of Amazon’s siren call.”
Daunt added that it is “an exciting and invigorating time in bookselling as good bookshops are rediscovering their purpose in the fightback against online and e-reading”.
Elliott Advisors bought its controlling stake in Waterstones in April.
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