All companies and teams only change their leader
when they are forced to do so or when the current one isn’t delivering what the
owners seek. Only a fool changes a wheel when it isn't broken.
Two years after Kobo was acquired by Japan’s
Rakuten they have announced that Kobo CEO Michael Serbinis is stepping down as
chief executive of the ebook company. Serbinis will be replaced by Takahito
“Taka” Aiki, with immediate effect and Aiki is to relocate to Canada. It is
reported that Serbinis will remain with Kobo as the company’s founder and vice
chairman.
Until recently Aiki was CEO of the Japanese telecom
company and subsidiary of Rakuten, He is reported as bringing, ‘a wealth of
experience in building and growing successful projects and companies, and has
built his career on achieving ambitious goals and forging strong teams.’ So the
obvious question is whether that is what Rakuten did not see in Serbinis? Or is
it a planned handover which just happens to happen immediately?
Kobo have been making good progress and have thrust
themselves into international markets and sought first mover benefits, but they
remain at best number three and a long way behind number one. They claim 18
million users in 190 countries with a digital book library of more than 4
million titles in 68 languages but is that enough? They still have hardware
that worked initially but is now subject to fire sale pricing and is looking
like a duck out of water. Like Nook they have developed the platform approach
but they remain focused on a single media, ebooks, in a multi media world. They
have been quietly developing and taking control of their DRM walled garden and
moving away from the transaction cost model of Adobe. But you have to ask is it
enough for a player the size of Rakuten?
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