Dive Brief:
- Japan’s largest online retailer, Rakuten Inc., is buying e-book distributor OverDrive Inc. in a $410 million cash sale.
- The acquisition will give Rakuten a new e-book distribution platform, more than 2.5 million titles, and relationships with 5,000 publishers.
- Rakuten has invested $3.2 billion in the last past three years to help it expand into online content and mobile services.
Dive Insight:
Rakuten Inc. is continuing its spending spree with the all-cash acquisition of Cleveland-based OverDrive, which offers the largest catalog of e-books, audio books, music and streaming video worldwide. OverDrive will retain current CEO Steve Potash and operate as a Rakuten subsidiary.
Rakuten—No. 46 on the Internet Retailer 2014 Top 500 Guide—introduced tablets to Japan to help sell e-books, similar to Amazon’s strategy for the Kindle. The company has also spent substantial amounts to acquire Ebates Inc. and Viber Media Ltd. in the last year, and recently invested $530 million into Lyft Inc.