Bookeen is a is based in Paris, France. They have been making e-readers since 2003 and they primarily focus exclusively in the French market. Every couple of years they unveil a new device and currently they are selling the Notea, which is an e-note. Bookeen has hit some very hard times and since the summer of 2022 and owe some hefty amounts of money to their creditors. The company is now in a state of receivership, which means, the people they owed money to, are going to take control of Bookeen.
In a statement on the the Bookeen Discord Server, Bookeen stated “” Hello, The Bookeen company has been in receivership since 06/10/2022. However, this does not at all mean the end of the adventure, many continuation options exist and the Notea is one of the company’s assets. Pending the rest of the procedure, the Bookeen teams continue to work daily on improving the brand’s products. We thank you for your trust and support.”
Bookeen entered into a state of receivership in June 2022. In French law, they normally have six months, where they can operate normally and creditors can’t sue them. If they have good lawyers, they can extend the state of receivership by another 18 months. I believe that Bookeens finances are dire and the courts will not likely give them an extension, since they have no hope in raising enough capital to pay off their debts. This means that by December 2022, the founders will likely leave the company and someone else will take them over.
One of the factors that led to the downfall of Bookeen is their white labeling of newer products. They are currently dealing with Bigme, for their Notea writing tablet. They had to put down a large amount of money to pay for the initial order and are sitting on a large stock pile, which has remained unsold for quite awhile. This is the first time they have ever developed an e-note, in their entire company existence, they only ever released commercial e-readers that were under 200 euros and were affordable for the masses. They wanted to capitlize on the e-note trend, since almost everyone is getting involved in this space, such as Amazon, Kobo, Fujitsu and established players such as Onyx Boox, Boyue, and even Supernote.
I would recommend that now is not a good time to buy Bookeen hardware. When the company is teetering on the verge of oblivion, it is not wise to buy expensive hardware.
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.
