Kobo Inc.
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Formerly called
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Shortbooks (2009) Kobo Inc. (2009-2016) |
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| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | bookselling, consumer electronics |
| Founded | Toronto, Ontario, Canada (December 2009) |
| Founder | Michael Serbinis |
| Headquarters | Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
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Area served
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Key people
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Takahito Aiki (Chairman) Michael Tamblyn (President and CEO) |
| Products | e-books, e-readers, tablet computers, reading applications |
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Number of employees
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>400 (April 2014) |
| Parent |
Rakuten (2012–present) |
| Subsidiaries | Aquafadas |
| Website | www |
Rakuten Kobo Inc. is a Canadian company which sells e-books, e-readers and tablet computers. It is headquartered in Toronto and is a subsidiary of the Japanese e-commerce conglomerate Rakuten. The name Kobo is an anagram of book.
It originated as Shortcovers, a cloud e-reading service launched by the Canadian bookstore chain Indigo Books and Music in February 2009. In December 2009, Indigo renamed the service Kobo and spun it off into an independent company. Indigo remained the majority owner, with investors including Borders Group, Cheung Kong Holdings, and REDgroup Retail taking minority stakes. As of March 2010[update], Indigo Books & Music owned 58% of Kobo Inc. Rakuten acquired the company from these owners in January 2012. On May 23, 2016, Waterstones announced it had sold its ebook business to Rakuten Kobo Inc., and as of June 14, 2016, users must access their ebooks via Kobo's ebook site.
Kobo produces several e-readers with e-paper screens. On the cheaper end, its lineup consists of the base model Kobo Touch, the smaller Kobo Mini, and the Kobo Glo, which has an illuminated screen. On the higher end, it includes the Kobo Aura; the Kobo Aura HD, which adds a higher resolution screen; and the waterproof Kobo Aura H2O. These e-readers compete with the Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble Nook product lines.
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