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Wednesday, November 09, 2011

EBook: The Japanese Rakuten buys Canadian Kobo

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kobo
AFP - The manager of the largest Japanese online shopping mall, Rakuten, announced Wednesday the acquisition for $ 315 million (228 million) of Canadian society Kobo reading lights that provides electronic and digital books to sites of booksellers. Rakuten, which just opened in Japan's own virtual library "Raboo" ready, subject to regulatory approvals, to purchase and pay in cash 100% stake in Kobo, to expand its international presence considered promising in this area.

This acquisition marks a new stage for Rakuten, which extends its branches abroad. Kobo is a number of digital books in Canada. The company offers reading terminals enriched with attractive features (links to social networking sites Twitter and Facebook) and boasts a catalog of 2.5 million book titles, mainly in English. Founded in 2009 by Canadian bookseller Indigo, Kobo presents itself as one of the few companies in the sector to be able to resist the giant Amazon, through its partnerships with various distributors in the world, including Fnac in France.

For the founder and CEO of Rakuten, Hiroshi Mikitani, "Kobo provides reading experiences with the most community integration of social media, while Rakuten Kobo offers unique opportunities to grow." "This transaction will greatly strengthen our position in existing markets and will allow us to diversify rapidly in other countries and other types of e-commerce", for its part welcomed the Director General of Kobo, Michael Serbin , said in a statement released in North America. The French retailer Fnac cultural products has recently announced the launch of Kobo reading lights in France, which are already offered by foreign chains Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Target, Future Shop, WHSmith, and Collins Booksellers Whitcoulls?

Through its subsidiaries in various countries, claims to offer Kobo Rakuten an even broader international presence in Germany, Brazil, Taiwan, China, Thailand, Indonesia, and of course, in Japan, where its service Raboo (short Book of Rakuten) is already compatible with a special reading light, and soon Panasonic models with Sony Reader. Rakuten aims to build on its reputation and experience in selling products and services via the Internet and adapt its proven very lucrative for content immaterial. For the first nine months of fiscal 2011, Rakuten has certainly deplored a loss, but this disappointment is due to an exceptional charge related to the restructuring of a business credit card, while the purely operational it posted record sales and profits.

The group, which takes advantage of the historical force of the Japanese currency, launched a major offensive abroad where he buys companies with a vengeance. He announced the acquisition in September, to 25 million pounds (29 million), the British company that manages Play Holdings one of the most important platforms for electronic commerce in Britain. In July, Rakuten had put his hand on the mall Tradoria, one of the largest in Germany, a year after taking the French company.



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