Bravo Two Zero author Andy McNab nets £1m as Tesco buys his e-book website in £4.5m deal

• Tesco buys Mobcast as race to dominate electronic books market hots up
• Website allows customers to download e-books onto mobiles and tablets
• Sainsbury's and John Lewis struck similar deals with other sites and e-readers earlier in the summer

In even more money: Special Forces soldier-turned-author Andy McNab (above) is expected to make around £1million after Tesco bought an online download site he founded

The race between Britain’s supermarket giants to dominate the electronic books market intensified last night after Tesco struck a £4.5million deal with Bravo Two Zero author Andy McNab.
The grocery goliath has snapped up an online download site founded by former-SAS man in its first foray into the world of e-books.
The secretive Bravo Two Zero author is set to make a killing from the deal, which will net him more than £1m.
Called Mobcast, the firm is an online platform where customers can buy and download electronic books onto mobile phones and tablet computers.
Until now, Tesco has used a third party to provide its e-books under the grocer’s branding.
But the fact the supermarket is buying its own platform shows the group is stepping up its efforts in the sphere.
Mobcast comes with ready-made agreements with major publishers and a back-catalogue of more than 130,000 titles.
Competition between rival supermarkets has heated up over the summer. In June, Sainsbury’s acquired the book downloading site Anobii from HMV for just £1.
The move was seen as an attempt to bolster the company’s fledgling entertainment arm.

 

Last week, John Lewis won the exclusive rights to sell Barnes & Noble’s reading device the Nook in the UK.
Books read on the Nook or Amazon’s Kindle have to be bought directly from the company that makes the reading device.

Making a killing: Mr McNab shot to fame with his 1993 bestseller Bravo Two Zero (left) which tells the story of an SAS mission he led in Iraq and has followed it up with several novels including Deep Black (right)

What Tesco and Sainsbury’s offer is different – it is the chance to buy e-books that can be read on mobile devices such as phones and tablet computers.
But the move will still be seen as a challenge to Amazon, which corners the market in the UK with around 90 per cent of all e-book sales.
Tesco has made a series of recent buy-ups in online retailing, including TV streaming service blinkbox in 2011 and an internet radio service WE7 in June this year.
The drive is fuelled by chief executive Phil Clarke’s enthusiasm for internet selling.

In the running: How the race between Britain's supermarket giants to dominate the electronic books market has developed in recent months

Mobcast will be integrated into Tesco over the coming months, although it is not yet known whether the company will be folded into the Tesco Entertainment label which already sells films and music.
Its other co-founder, chief executive Tony Lynch, is expected to stay on. Lynch and McNab held a joint stake in the venture of 45 per cent, meaning they will each walk away with just over £1m.
Tesco shares closed 0.65p lower at 338.8p.