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  Rakuten Buys Kobo For $315 Million In Cash Deal

  1300 readersJapanese e-commerce company Rakuten has agreed to buy Canadian eBook company Kobo for $315 million in cash. Founded in 2009, Kobo has been fast to gain ground in the eBook market and has become a competitor to Amazon and Barnes & Noble offering eReader devices, a tablet and an eReading store. The acquisition expands Rakuten’s push

• Rakuten Sells 100,000 Kobo E-Readers in Japan, Not Without Problems

  622 readers New Kobo parent Rakuten has sold some 100,000 Rakuten Kobo Touch e-ink e-readers in Japan at ¥7,980 ($101) a pop, while its new in-country rival Amazon has yet to ship a single Kindle — but the sales haven’t come without their problems, according to a report in the Japan Times. Related: The Two Rules of International

• Amazon Winning Ebook Battle in Japan

  339 readers Just three months after launching its ebook business in the country, Amazon is reportedly winning the war for ebook market-share in Japan, even besting Sony and Rakuten (Kobo), which are both based in Japan yet operate internationally. According to research firm Impress R&D, 40% of Japanese ebook readers are buying from the Kindle store. The most

• Amazon Winning Ebook Battle in Japan

  113 readers Just three months after launching its ebook business in the country, Amazon is reportedly winning the war for ebook market-share in Japan, even besting Sony and Rakuten (Kobo), which are both based in Japan yet operate internationally. According to research firm Impress R&D, 40% of Japanese ebook readers are buying from the Kindle store. The most

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  Kobo Targets 10 New Countries in 2012, Japan and Brazil ‘Likely’

  1136 readers“We can be so ambitious because of Rakuten,” says Kobo EVP of Business Development. By Edward Nawotka “We built Kobo as a global company,” says Todd Humphrey, EVP of Business Development at Kobo, “and our acquisition by Rakuten has brought us serious resources and will allow us to expand on a global scale.” Rakuten, one of Japan’s largest

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  Rakuten completes purchase of Kobo

  1491 readersEngadget has the press release from Kobo on the completion of its purchase by e-commerce company Rakuten. Kobo’s HQ will remain in Toronto, though Rakuten is based in Japan. Given that Rakuten owns a lot of popular e-commerce and other industry sites already (including e-tailer Buy.com), it has the potential to give Kobo a lot

• Indigo Announces Agreement for Kobo to be Acquired by Rakuten

  1362 readers TORONTO, Nov. 8, 2011, 2011 (Canada NewsWire via COMTEX) -- Indigo Books & Music Inc. ("Indigo"), Canada's largest book, gift and specialty toy retailer, and Rakuten, Inc. (jasdaq:4755) ("Rakuten"), one of the world's leading Internet service companies, announced today that Rakuten has agreed to acquire all of the outstanding

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  Hey Japan, we’re here!

  1966 readersFrom the Kobo blog: We’re thrilled to let you know the Kobo Touch has made its way to Japan. Since we first announced our plans and began pre-orders online, Kobo has had overwhelming response from Japanese consumers. Our eReader is so popular that it outsold the 100-million other products offered by Rakuten’s online marketplace –

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  Rakuten insists hidden reviews were of premature version of Kobo Touch service

  1452 readersOn The Digital Reader, Nate Hoffelder discusses Rakuten’s response to those who noticed it has chosen to hide all consumer reviews of its Kobo Touch e-reader from Japan. Rakuten claims that a version of its site and service leaked before the actual launch date, so the reviews were of a product that was not actually

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  A war against Amazon in Japan

  1347 readersFrom an article by Robin Birtle in Publishing Perspectives: TOKYO: The keynote panel discussion at Tokyo’s E-Book Expo, as part of the Tokyo Book Fair last week, wasn’t expected to get the pulses racing despite the presence of Mikitani-san, whose company Rakuten has acquired Kobo, and Noma-san, the leader of the giant publisher Kodansha. We