A few months ago, Borders got into the textbook sales race with the launch of a marketplace to buy and sell used books. Today, the company is getting into textbook rentals; partnering with rental giant Chegg to power a rental platform on Borders’ site. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed
Through the partnership, Borders’ customers have access to Chegg’s inventory of millions of textbook titles. Chegg will serve as the sole provider of textbook rentals through Borders.com and will be part of the Borders Textbook Marketplace, which includes 1.4 million new and used titles. As an incentive to use the platform, Borders is offering students extra cash by utilizing the site’s used textbook buyback option.
Chegg has been on a roll recently, raising $75 million in new funding, acquiring CourseRank, and estimated to bring in $130 million in revenue this year (that’s up from $25 million in 2009). It’s probably wise that Borders chose to partner with Chegg rather than competing with the book rentals powerhouse.