06/15/2021

A Media Empire for the (Public) Library?

OverDrive acquires Kanopy

During the pandemic, streaming media and in particular video has exploded. And it’s not just Netflix and Disney+ — there is also growing demand for video services offered through libraries. The significance of this market for licensed streaming media services was cemented last week when OverDrive acquired Kanopy. 

These companies, both owned by private equity, have made strong inroads in the public library market, but they have struggled for related reasons in the academic sector. At a minimum, OverDrive’s acquisition creates a public library powerhouse with continuing growth aspirations. Both services, however, have struggled in the academic sector. Will the combination now provide the scale needed to create a more sustainable offering for this market? 

The Players

Many Scholarly Kitchen readers will be primarily familiar with OverDrive as an ebook and audiobook lending service widely utilized in public libraries. It has changed hands itself a few times in the recent past, first bought by Rakuten for $410 million in 2015 and then iby KKR, a global investment firm (purchase price not disclosed), in 2020. Rakuten’s portfolio includes the Kobo e-reader, but OverDrive remained compatible with competitors (most notably Kindle in the U.S,) and it appears that device agnosticism will continue to be its business strategy. The acquisition by KKR enabled OverDrive to acquire the library assets of another KKR-owned property, RBMedia, a major producer of audiobooks. 

Please select this link to read the complete article from The Scholarly Kitchen.