Waterstones acquires Blackwell’s, the UK’s biggest independent bookseller

Blackwell's bookshop in Oxford. Toby Blackwell, the outgoing owner, says Waterstones is ‘the right buyer’. Photograph: Geoffrey Swaine/Rex/Shutterstock

The UK’s largest book chain, Waterstones, has acquired the country’s largest independent bookseller, Blackwell’s, ending 143 years of family ownership and signalling a further concentration of the bookselling industry.

Blackwell’s, which has 18 bookshops, was put up for sale this month after its owners ditched a plan to hand it to employees. The chain will continue to trade under its own brand.