Bookwire Sells Zebralution’s Music Business to Warner Music Group

Frankfurt am Main / Berlin, November 3, 2026 – Bookwire is selling Zebralution Music GmbH to the Warner Music Group, thereby refocusing Zebralution’s business entirely on digital publishing. At the same time, Zebralution Music gains a strong partner in the Warner Music Group for its future development.

Bookwire acquired the Zebralution Group at the beginning of the year and subsequently established the music business as an independent company. The decision reflected the different markets, customer structures, and requirements of music and digital publishing. With the sale to the Warner Music Group, Zebralution Music now gains a long-term perspective within a setting that closely aligns with its market and business model.

“We are very happy for the Zebralution Music team and wish Konrad von Löhneysen, Sascha Lazimbat, Michael Schick, and the entire Zebralution Music team all the best for the future. Zebralution Music can now consistently continue on its path in the music market while further building on what makes the company special: strong service, distribution technology, and its unique spirit of collaboration with labels and artists. It is particularly fitting that, with the Warner Music Group, Zebralution Music is in a sense returning to a former home,” says John Ruhrmann, Co-CEO and Co-Founder of Bookwire.

Bookwire’s mission remains clear: to be the best platform for the needs of publishing clients and media companies across audiobooks, e-books, and print-on-demand.

“Our attention is now even more stongly on the publishing clients and channel partners of Zebralution Digital Publishing and Open Publishing. In September, we successfully migrated all audiobook clients to Bookwire OS, giving Zebralution’s audiobook publishers access to the full range of benefits and functionality offered by our platform. Next year, we will roll out several exciting new features in Bookwire OS, and we’re already looking forward to them. The best is yet to come!” says Jens Klingelhöfer, CEO and co-founder of Bookwire.

About Bookwire

Bookwire is a leading international digital publishing business, known for its pioneering Bookwire OS software solution. Founded in Frankfurt in 2010 as a service provider for publisher distribution of digital content, Bookwire currently employs 160 people in Germany, the UK, Spain, France, Brazil, Italy and the USA, who take care of ebooks, audiobooks, podcasts and print-on-demand for more than 3,500 publishers. The pioneering software "Bookwire OS – One Solution" delivers, analyzes, and markets around 1,500,000 eBooks and 300,000 audiobooks in all relevant distribution channels. In addition to the latest customer analytics and pricing technology, publishing clients of Bookwire also have access to individual support from account & marketing managers who look after the clients from end to end. Bookwire is led by the founders Jens Klingelhöfer (CEO) and John Ruhrmann (Co-CEO), as well as by Christian Lindemann (COO), and has branches in Barcelona, London, Milano, São Paulo, New York and Paris, in addition to the company headquarters in Frankfurt am Main and the "Digital Hub" in Dortmund.

About Zebralution

Zebralution GmbH was founded in 2004 as Europe’s first digital distributor for independent labels and has also established itself in the field of digital publishing since 2010. Today, Zebralution is part of the Bookwire Group, one of the leading international companies in the field of digital publishing technology. From its headquarters in Berlin, Zebralution serves publishers and media companies in the areas of e-books, audiobooks, and podcasts. The company relies on the “Bookwire OS – One Solution” technology platform, through which digital content is distributed to all relevant distribution channels, analyzed, and marketed. In addition to state-of-the-art technology, customers benefit from personalized support and many years of expertise in digital media distribution.

For media inquiries, please contact:
Susanne Opel
Corporate Communications Manager Bookwire
susanne.opel@bookwire.de