Japanese e-commerce company Rakuten has acquired (http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20111108007236/en/Rakuten-Acquire-Kobo) e-Reading platform Kobo for $315 million in cash. Founded in 2009, Kobo is the developer of eReaders, eReading apps and more with a number of retail partners around the world. For Rakuten, this is a way for the company to get in on the eBooks market. Kobo recently debuted (http://techcrunch.com/2011/10/19/kobo-pits-its-vox-against-the-fire-and-nook-as-first-social-e-reader/) its Vox e-Reader tablet, touting it as the world's first social e-reader.
Attribution: CNET, ECTNews and TechCrunch.