After announcing $6 million in seed funding last September, BookClub has now raised a $20 million Series A financing. The round was led by Signal Peak Ventures — which was joined by GSV Ventures, Maveron, Backstage Capital and Pelion Venture Partner, along with MasterClass co-founded Aaron Rasmussen and Goodreads co-founder Otis Chandler. The service has been in private beta, but expects to open to the public in July. TechCrunch says they are still “experimenting with two services to bring author-led discussions to readers.” One is a traditional interview-style format with the author; another has viewers “click through videos as they […]
eNews
Back to the Future: Kobo Launches Writeable eReader
If you remember the Newton and the early days of dedicated ereaders, Kobo’s new product announcement is a trip down memory lane. Their Elipsa reader, launching June 24 is oversized — a 10.3-inch screen — and writeable. It comes with a stylus and lets you annotate ebooks and PDFs (depending on the DRM permissions). You can also “create your own notebooks, where you can instantly convert your notes to clean typed text, and export them off your device as needed.” With students finally converting to digital textbooks, the $399 Elipsa is positioned as a better dedicated learning reader. In other […]
Amazon Publishing Reaches Library Deal
Amazon Publishing will finally make their titles available for lending to library patrons in the US, working with the non-profit Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) and the SimplyE ereader app created by the New York Public Library. Starting this summer, and applying to their full catalog of approximately 10,000 ebooks and audiobooks, Amazon Publishing will offer four different licensing models. They say, “We expect that libraries will be able to access all of the Amazon Publishing titles by the end of the year.” For access by one reader at a time, they provide for either unlimited lends in a […]
Korea’s Kakao Buys Out Radish and Tapas Media as Naver Closes Wattpad Acquisition
South Korean’s Kakao Entertainment is buying serialized fiction app Radish for $440 million and web comics platform Tapas Media for $510 million. The purchases expand on Kakao’s popular webtoons business, currently focused on Korea and Japan. Kakao was already a minority investor in both companies — reported to own about 13 percent of Radish after helping to lead their $63 million Series A financing, and with a recently-increased stake of 40 percent in Tapas. “We are planning to engage the North American market in earnest through the intellectual property (IP) business” with the two acquisitions, Kakao Entertainment CEO Jinsoo Lee […]
Ingram Sells VitalSource to Private Equity Firm
Ingram Content Group has an agreement to sell their etextbook platform VitalSource Technologies to Francisco Partners, an investment firm focused on technology businesses. The acquirer says in the announcement it is, “Committed to furthering the VitalSource mission of improving learner outcomes and accelerating our commitment to developing innovative, forward-thinking solutions and platforms that open doors to affordable and impactful learning experiences to students and professionals around the world.” The deal is expected to close this summer. Ingram bought the business in 2006 and has grown it to service 16 million learners worldwide. VitalSource president Kent Freeman says in the announcement, […]
People, Etc.
Shelley Husband has joined the Association of American Publishers as senior vice president, government affairs and special projects. Most recently she was staff director and general counsel for the House Committee on the Judiciary from 2013 to 2019. At Hachette Livre, Nathalie Houël has been promoted to group chief financial officer. Arnaud Robert becomes group secretary general, responsible for all legal matters, compliance, insurance and institutional relations. Juliane Chevallier moves up to internal audit and internal control director. All three will report to deputy ceo Fabrice Bakhouche. Kevin Lopez becomes group chief controller, reporting to Houël. Marian Brown has been promoted […]