The Austin, Texas-based e-book software maker Lexcycle - well-known for its iPhone e-reading application 'Stanza' - has been acquired by the online book seller Amazon. com. While both Lexcycle and Amazon are competitors in the e-book reading software market for the iPhone, Lexcycle will, for the time being, operate as an autonomous subsidiary.

Even though Amazon's Kindle e-reader makes use of proprietary software and the company already boasts of a Kindle application for iPhone, its move to takeover Lexcycle apparently depicts its attempt to further consolidate a market it has a strong grip on!

Lexcycle's July-2008 introduced Stanza is a reputable brand, which had reached one million book downloads by December, and has crossed the 500,000 downloads' mark within the four months of this year. In addition to its noteworthy iPhone app, Lexcycle also makes Stanza's desktop version for Mac OS X and Windows.

With the kind of popularity that Stanza enjoys, Amazon neither intends to ruin it nor does it wish to merge the capability of Kindle with Stanza. Regarding Amazon's projected move after the Lexcycle acquisition, Amazon spokesperson, Cinthia Portugal, said: "As a standalone business unit within Amazon, Lexcycle will maintain its business model while continuing to innovate as new opportunities arise. The goal is for the combination of the two company's strengths to offer great experiences for ebook readers."

(Via TopNews. Contributed by Jimmy Peterson)