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It’s Official: German Media Retailer Saturn Takes Over Bankrupt Txtr

txtr-logoWe’ve known for close to a month and a half that Saturn Media group, the parent company for the Media Markt, Saturn, and Redcoon chains of electronics stores, was taking over txtr’s bankrupt ebookstore.

And now txtr’s customers have been officially informed (finally).

I just got an email from txtr with the news that Juke Entertainment, one of Saturn Media’s subsidiaries, is taking over txtr’s operations. The email was in German and only referred to the customers of txtr.de (the German ebookstore). This does not bode well for Saturn’s continued support of txtr’s international customers, but at least the customers outside of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland are still being supported (for now).

I am similarly concerned about the lack of information on txtr’s own website. There’s no announcement of the change in ownership, so it is entirely possible that a txtr customer would learn of the news when their credit card statement said Saturn and not txtr.

Here’s the email:

Dear Readers,

We want you today to inform you that your usual eBook service under txtr.de is operated in the future of the JUKE Entertainment.

For you as a customer, this means no restriction or deterioration. Quite the opposite: JUKE will continue to manage the portfolio of services initially unchanged and expand in the future to many exciting features and new content – Stay tuned!

For you nothing changes! Your login remains, their books remain available, you can still more books relate and enjoy.

With best regards,
Your txtr JUKE team

Launched in 2009, txtr was a Berlin-based ebook startup which failed earlier this year.

The company was originally formed with the goal of building an ereader. That fell through in 2010, after which txtr pivoted to offering a whitelabel ebookstore platform with apps for Android, iOS, and Windows.

Txtr later tried to launch the beagle ereader, but that went over like a lead balloon. And then last summer, when txtr was circling the drain, a number of its best people left the company to spin off Blloon, the subscription ebook service.

There were rumors that txtr was nearly acquired in late 2014 as a move to stave off the bankruptcy, but that didn’t happen. Instead txtr filed for bankruptcy in January 2015.

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