The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Colorado has approved the sale of netLibrary's assets to the nonprofit Online Computer Library Center. The sale, for $10 million, is expected to close January 22 following a 10-day appeal period required by the bankruptcy court.

Following completion of the deal, netLibrary's e-book operation will become a division of OCLC and will continue to operate in Boulder, Colo. MetaText, netLibrary's digital textbook division, will also remain in Boulder and will become a for-profit subsidiary of OCLC. Rob Kaufman, president and CEO of netLibrary, is expected to oversee the Boulder operation, and the company's 125 employees—down from a onetime high of 450—are also expected to remain.

Both netLibrary and OCLC had been pushing for the bankruptcy court to move quickly—netLibrary only filed for Chapter 11 in November—in order to preserve netLibrary's operations. Since the company filed for Chapter 11, libraries have been slow to pay their bills and even slower to order new titles. OCLC, one of the most respected organizations in the library world, will add not only cash but credibility to netLibrary. OCLC reports that for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2001, it had revenues of $165.3 million and contribution to equity was $4.9 million.