It was acquired by the publisher Mondadori in 2014 from a venture backed by HMV Group, HarperCollins, Penguin, and Random House.

The service allows individuals to catalog their books and rate, review and discusses them with other readers.

The apps allow individuals to barcode scan books and read both community and expert reviews.

On 2 March 2011 it was announced that in 2010 Anobii had been acquired by a UK startup led by HMV Group and supported by HarperCollins, Penguin, and The Random House Group and that the company is working on a new version of the website with the possibility to buy books and most of all ebooks.

[1] On 12 June 2012, it was announced that HMV had sold its interest to UK supermarket company Sainsbury's for £1.