Although it has derived a minimal amount of advertising since it launched its Web site in August, Bookdigital.com has filed a prospectus with the Securities & Exchange Commission for a public offering through which it hopes to generate more than $10 million in net proceeds. According to the filing, Bookdigital expects to issue 1.2 million shares at between $10 and $12 per share.
Based in New York, Bookdigital describes itself as a development stage company that provides electronic access to books and other reference materials on the Internet. The company's flagship Web site is www.bookdigital.com, and it expects to develop a number of other "super subsites," such as www.lawexpressuse.com.
The company's goal is to become "the premier e-library and source for reference and digital books on the Internet." Sources available on the expanded site will range from classic literature to reference materials on law, medicine, chemistry and other professions. All materials will be downloadable at no charge. Currently, Bookdigital.com offers 6000 volumes in English, but the company projects that it will eventually have more than one million books in a number of different languages; it intends to acquire at least 90,000 titles over the next year both from books available in the public domain and in agreements with publishers.
Bookdigital.com plans to generate revenue through advertising on its Web site and subscription fees to specific subsites, as well as through alliances with other Internet companies.
Bookdigital was incorporated in March and so far has generated $963,600 in funding; as of May 31, it had an accumulated deficit of $18,436. The company intends to use the proceeds from the offering to increase its sales and marketing budget, to develop its www.lawexpressuse.com site, to develop reference materials in several languages and for other working capital needs.
The company has eight full-time and four part-time employees but expects to hire 30 additional employees in the near future.
