logo.jpgI received an email this morning telling me of the (rather silly, in my view) change of name to the nonsense word Kobo. In addition the email says that that their site has been updated in look and feel and adds the ability to browse by category, among other changes.

They have also updated their Shortcovers iPhone App to Kobo, which is why, I guess, that I couldn’t find it in the App Store when I wrote the article about Shortcovers teaming up with the Internet Archive.

I’m off to download the new app.

UPDATE

I just received a press release saying:

Shortcovers today announced strategic financing that includes a group of investors spanning global retail and mobile sectors.  The company also announced that it has formally spun out from parent company Indigo Books & Music Inc., and will now operate under the name Kobo, Inc.  Kobo today raised $16 million CAD from majority shareholder Indigo Books & Music, U.S. based Borders Group, Inc., Instant Fame, a subsidiary of Cheung Kong (Holdings) Ltd., and REDgroup Retail Pty Ltd. … “Our vision for a digital strategy that’s right for Borders is taking shape today through our investment in Kobo,” said Borders Group Chief Executive Officer Ron Marshall. “Powered by Kobo, we’ll launch a new eBook store on Borders.com and make Borders-branded mobile applications available to our customers, including our 35 million Borders Rewards loyalty program members. Borders shares Kobo’s vision to provide any eBook on any device and we look forward to working closely with Kobo on content and distribution.”

2 COMMENTS

  1. I hope that ‘Kobo’ (ridiculous name, too much like the cellphone brand Koodo) will remain primarily associated with Indigo. In this day of geographical restrictions (also imho ridiculous) it was nice to have one entrant who was Canadian. I am not sure a takeover by Borders will be good for Canada. There are a lot of ebook fans here too, you know 🙂

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