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Originally Posted by EowynCarter
What make you think kobo is at risk of going under?
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There isn't much evidence that it is danger of folding but there are three red flags that indicate all is not well in Kobo land:
- The appointment of a Rakuten in-house turnaround specialist as Kobo CEO last year.
- Rakuten buying Overdrive, which specializes in business to business ebook sales operations. Rakuten is much like Ali Baba and eBay in that all three make their money hosting smaller retailers rather than as actual consumer retailers themselves, like Amazon and Walmart. Factor in that Rakuten has never used their "online mall" website to support Kobo and Kobo starts to look like a misfit in the Rakuten empire.
- Kobo public statements in Canada (their strongest market) that they would be unable to compete against Amazon without price fixing and the recent revelation that the Canadian government is investigating the big publishers (and Kobo and Apple) for signs of price fixing collusion.
http://the-digital-reader.com/2015/0...ng-conspiracy/
Add them up and the odds of a Kobo divestiture or shutdown is, while still low, non-zero. Of the two, it is more likely Rakuten would try to spin them off but the recent declines in BPH ebook sales don't make Kobo quite as attractive as it was when they bought it.
There is also a looming threat in the form of Kindle Unlimited that is starting to be a significant part of the ebook landscape. It's role isn't totally clear yet but it is accounting for significant revenue to authors.
The next year or so threatens to be as significant as 2010 was.