Kobo Prime Candidate..Nook

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by taming

But perhaps no reason to think it might be up for sale, I suppose, especially when the CEO (who founded the company) still owns over 40% of it.

It seems to me that the lack of a Kobo presence on Rakuten's websites is no reason to believe that Kobo might be up for sale. From my perspective, it appears to be a reflection of their business model. Things change, of course, and who knows what will happen in the future.

No one thinks Kobo is up for sale. We just think that the only support Kobo has at Rakuten is the current CEO. If he goes then Kobo might be sold off by his successor.

[taming]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

No one thinks Kobo is up for sale. We just think that the only support Kobo has at Rakuten is the current CEO. If he goes then Kobo might be sold off by his successor.

The OP seemed to think Kobo might be up for sale. And if the fact that Kobo does not have a presence on Rakuten's website is in line with the company's overall philosophy, exactly how are you gauging the amount of support (or lack thereof) within the company? How does one determine this? Not by its (relative) independence, it seems.

Are other Rakuten board members speaking out? Is there anything you can point to that indicates that there is a lack of support within Rakuten? Any evidence that they are replacing the CEO in the immediate future?

EDIT: I looked up Nate's original blog post.

From the article:

Here in the US Rakuten owns Buy.com, but there’s no mention of Kobo on the front page. The situation is the same on the UK-based Play.com website as well as on Rakuten.co.jp and Rakuten.com.br. These are not minor retail websites, and they do millions of dollars in business each day. And yet Rakuten isn’t using them to promote Kobo nor is there any kind of cross-promotion (like a section heading for eBooks or Kobo directing customers to sister websites). You really have to wonder exactly how committed is Rakuten in supporting Kobo, don’t you?

It certainly looks like Rakuten is putting less work into promoting than Amazon is investing in the Kindle. Have you seen the Amazon.com homepage recently? There’s not one but 6 different banners on the Amazon homepage which promote the Kindle hardware, software, or content.

From the outside it looks to me like Kobo has some support at Rakuten HQ but not absolute support. That would explain the purchase but less than complete support in promoting the platform. And if that is an accurate summation then Kobo is one internal Rakuten power struggle away from losing what little support it now has.

If someone wants to present an argument that Kobo is not the red-headed stepchild of the Rakuten corporate family I would love to read it.

Nope, no red-headed stepchild that I can see.

[Synamon]

The OP's speculation is nonsensical. It would make more sense for B&N to phase out Nook altogether and become Kobo's brick and mortar partner in the US. Maybe that's why Nook devices and ebooks have been on sale repeatedly for the last few week, the division is reaping all the cash they can before they shut down the whole thing.

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by Synamon

The OP's speculation is nonsensical. It would make more sense for B&N to phase out Nook altogether and become Kobo's brick and mortar partner in the US. Maybe that's why Nook devices and ebooks have been on sale repeatedly for the last few week, the division is reaping all the cash they can before they shut down the whole thing.

That too is entirely possible.