Rakuten has been trying to dominate the e-book landscape in North America for a number of years. The Japanese eCommerce giant purchased Kobo in 2011 and are the proud new owners of Overdrive.
Rakuten announced they intended to purchase Overdrive last month and the acquisition has finally been completed. The deal is worth $410 million dollars in cash and OverDrive CEO and founder Steve Potash will continue to direct the company. One has to wonder if his days are numbered.
Currently, OverDrive works with more 5,000 publishers and more than 30,000 libraries around the world. They are considered the largest company of its kind that sells digital content to libraries, such as audiobooks, e-books, magazines, newspapers and streaming video.
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.