Audio Book Club, Inc. Acquires Columbia House Audiobook Club

Posted on January 4, 1999

Audio Book Club, Inc. has announced that it expects to more than double its annual revenues through the acquisition of the Columbia House Audiobook Club from the Columbia House Company.

Columbia House's Audiobook Club was launched in 1994 and has a total customer file of over 600,000 names. Combined with Audio Book Club's 400,00 total member names, the total number of customer names is now in excess of 1,000,000. As part of the agreement, Audio Book Club will be able to utilize Columbia House's extensive compact disc, VHS, laser and DVD membership lists in its new member acquisition campaigns. In addition, Audio Book Club will have the right to insert new member acquisition materials into Columbia House's member mailings to its various clubs. Audio Book Club will be the Columbia House recommended source for audiobooks in a club format.

Commenting on the acquisition, Norton Herrick, Chairman and CEO of Audio Book Club, stated, "This is truly a 'McGwiresque' deal for Audio Book Club. This acquisition marks a major milestone for Audio Book Club and, we believe, solidifies our position not only as the leading club for audiobooks, but as the leading seller of audiobooks in the world. By increasing our member file to over 1,000,000, we believe we can quickly realize the full benefit of an expanded customer base as well as substantial economies of scale. We anticipate these scale economies will come from the ability to spread the Company's fixed costs over a much larger membership base as well as from volume discounts from suppliers. Another benefit, and one which will enhance the effectiveness of our new member recruitment program, is our access to the Columbia House customer files of approximately 20 million names."