Fatbrain.com

About Fatbrain.com

Fatbrain.com emerged as a notable online bookseller during the dot-com boom, originating from the physical bookstore chain, Computer Literacy Bookshops, founded in 1983 by Dan Doernberg and Rachel Unkefer. The business transitioned online and was eventually co-founded and led by CEO Chris MacAskill, a Stanford-educated geophysicist who had previously worked at NeXT with Steve Jobs. His background in geophysics and technology informed the company's focus. Another key figure was Kim Orumchian, the executive vice president of product development.

The company specialized in the sale of professional and technical books, targeting a corporate client base. A significant part of its business model involved establishing corporate accounts with major companies like IBM and Cisco, creating dedicated portals for their employees to purchase books. This B2B focus was a key differentiator in the competitive online book market. Fatbrain.com also ventured into the nascent digital content space with a service called eMatter, which allowed authors to sell shorter documents, like research papers, directly to readers. This initiative was later spun off into a separate entity named MightyWords.

As a public company on the Nasdaq, Fatbrain.com was recognized as one of the fastest-growing public companies in Silicon Valley, achieving significant revenue growth in a short period. The company's trajectory culminated in its acquisition by Barnesandnoble.com in November 2000 for approximately $64 million in a stock and cash deal. Following the acquisition, Fatbrain.com became a wholly-owned subsidiary, with its management team initially remaining in place to leverage its expertise in the B2B and digital document market. The acquisition was part of Barnes & Noble's strategy to expand its corporate sales and digital publishing capabilities to better compete with Amazon.