News

Lightning Source, Versaware Team Up
Calvin Reid -- 8/21/00
Lightning and Versaware have entered into a "long-term strategic alliance"



In a move that creates a formidable combination of e-book service providers, Lightning Source, Ingram's print-on-demand and e-publishing unit, and Versaware, an Israel- and New York City-based e-publishing service, have entered into a "long-term strategic alliance" to provide a expanded digital services. The alliance comes in the wake of recent agreements by both firms to prepare tens of thousands of titles from major book publishers for digital fulfillment in a variety of formats.

Under the new agreement, Versaware, which runs a high-volume facility in India for converting digital files, will provide digital conversion to Lightning Source clients. Lightning Source, which initially specialized in POD services, in turn will serve Versaware clients with its POD technology.

Ed Marino, president and CEO of Lightning Source, which has committed to add more than 50,000 titles to its digital offerings, said, "The title commitments to our digital library have grown exponentially in record time. This alliance will help Lightning meet this remarkable demand for digital content. Our combined technological know-how will help deliver greater value and service to publishers, booksellers, libraries and consumers."

Sol Rosenberg, cofounder of Versaware, told PW the alliance will have "tremendous impact on the e-book market. We'll work closely together, and publishers know they will get the best of proven technical service." Rosenberg also noted that the agreement is "not exclusive. But we'll be handling a lot of the work. And we'll be working with Lightning Source on other delivery and content-management technologies that we'll announce later."