Rakuten buys ebook marketplace OverDrive for $410M to boost struggling Kobo

Rakuten’s Kobo ereader.

Ecommerce titan Rakuten is doubling down on its struggling Kobo ereaders by acquiring an ebook marketplace called OverDrive. The deal, announced this afternoon, sees Rakuten buying out US-based OverDrive for US$410 million.

OverDrive has over two million ebooks, audiobooks, and videos on its site. The company started out offline in 1986 selling print books and CD-ROMs, and then in 2000 it moved online to form an ebook and audiobook repository. The company retains substantial offline businesses, including its Digital Library Reserve, which allows people to download digital books at selected public libraries and schools in more than 40 countries.

All that content will be used to boost Rakuten’s Kobo ereader and ebook store, which is battling Amazon’s Kindle ereader as well as tablet/phone-oriented content stores from Apple and Google. A Kobo app is also available for iOS and Android.

See: Japanese ecommerce giant Rakuten leads $530M funding in Lyft

Takahito Aiki, head of Rakuten’s global eBook business, describes OverDrive as “one of the most comprehensive online digital marketplaces” in a statement today.

It’s a sign that Rakuten is not giving up on Kobo or ebooks as a whole, despite the storied competition. Rakuten said today that it sees digital books as a strong part of its content ecosystem, which covers video site Viki and on-demand video streaming service Wuaki.tv.

American coupon firm Ebates was Rakuten’s previous major acquisition – a $1 billion price tag back in September 2014. More recently, Rakuten has been flexing its investment arm, leading Lyft’s US$530 million round last week.