The Amazon-owned online film site, The Internet Movie Database (imdb.com), is acquiring online independent film distributor Withoutabox. The deal, agreed for an undisclosed sum, allows LA-based Withoutabox to continue to operate as a standalone operation. The agreement promises to extend IMDb's online reach and adds to its related film ventures. These include IMDbPro, a site aimed at entertainment industry professionals, and IMDb Resume, a service that lets actors and film crew workers promote themselves to film professionals.

"Our mission has always been to provide film lovers around the world with the most comprehensive movie-, TV-, and celebrity-related information," says IMDb's VP, Colin Bryar. "Working with Withoutabox, we can offer our viewers even more film-related content."

Withoutabox was set up in 2000. Through its website, the company aims to connect people from across the film industry. This is done by offering film makers services for submitting films to festivals, and by offering festival organisers the means to promote their events. It claims to have signed up 150,000 film makers, and connects to nearly 3,000 festivals from across 200 countries. Withoutabox also owns Film Finders, an aggregator and seller of independent film data.

IMDb is a searchable online database, which claims to list details of over 1m movies, TV and entertainment programmes, and 2.5m cast and crew members. Amongst the information it provides are cast lists, photos, quotes, trivia, box-office data. The site also hosts message boards, streams trailers, and covers major film events. It claims to have 50m unique users per month. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Amazon, which acquired the site in 1998.