Report: Tesco puts Blinkbox up for sale

Tesco is reportedly looking to sell its digital platform Blinkbox, which includes the e-book service Blinkbox books.

The Guardian has reported the supermarket’s new c.e.o Dave Lewis has initiated a strategic review of the company which includes putting the platform up for sale.

The newspaper reports that if a buyer can not be found, then the service will close. However, its co-founder Michael Comish, promoted to group digital director at Tesco last year, would stay at the supermarket.

Tesco bought e-book service Mobcast from Andy McNab and Tony Lynch for £4.5m in September 2012, which was then rebranded under Tesco’s television and music streaming service Blinkbox.

Blinkbox books launched earlier this year in March, several months after the other content arms, headed by former Facebook executive Gavin Sathianathan and was welcomed by publishers as a competitor to Amazon in the e-book market.

The news of Blinkbox’s potential sale comes following the accounting scandal which hit Tesco last week, when a whistleblower revealed the supermarket overestimated its first half profits by £250m.

Following the revelation, four Tesco senior managers were suspended and the retailer’s share price tumbled.

Blinkbox had begun moving into the events space, sponsoring a HarperVoyager UK event with George R R Martin and Robin Hobb in August, with its own series of events planned later this month featuring writers such as Clare Balding, David Nicholls and Caitlin Moran.

Neither Tesco nor Blinkbox would comment on this story.