Overdrive is the largest company involved in the digital library sector and they were purchased by Rakuten in 2015. As part of a unified branding strategy, OverDrive has changed their corporate brand name to Rakuten OverDrive on July 1 to align with other Rakuten companies in the U.S.
Hiroshi Mikitani, founder and CEO of Rakuten said in a statement “To help you to achieve your important mission, I along with Steve and the OverDrive team, am personally committed to serving you and your readers with world-class services and technology. We pledge to maintain your trust and confidence by preserving your readers’ privacy and confidentiality with the most advanced security and processes. We hold sacred the trust you’ve established with your readers, and we are dedicated to upholding this trust in all that we do.”
The rebranding does not not affect their day-to-day service, and will not change. This change applies to the corporate brand only. It will not impact product names, such as the OverDrive App, OverDrive Marketplace, OverDrive Education, or Libby, and their legal name will also remain unchanged: OverDrive, Inc.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
