Yesterday over in the US, Borders filed for bankruptcy. Through what can be seen as coincidence or providence, the company behind the Australian bookstores Borders and Angus & Robertson, RedGroup Retail, has today been placed in voluntary administration. Fortunately, Kobo have assured that all eBooks purchased through the companies are safe.
On a blog post in response to the US Borders bankruptcy, Kobo – the company behind both ethe Kobo reader device and the Kobo eBook store – has assured customers that even if Borders dies, eBooks purchased through Borders using Kobo’s backend will be perfectly safe, as they are a seprate entity who run the entire operation from their own servers and who have complete financial stability:
“Kobo is an independent, financially secure company that provides a Global eReading Service. Today will be another day filled with books being downloaded every second by Kobo users in over 100 countries.”
“Your ebook library is perfectly safe. The Borders ebook experience is powered by Kobo, an entirely separate company from Borders. Kobo is financially secure and will continue to maintain your ebook library no matter what happens.”
The fact that Kobo has made a point of the fact it offers a global eReading service means that the same security is in place for Australian customers. Even if (tragically) both Borders and Angus and Robertson bookstores cease to exist in Australia, the Kobo platform will remain, and any ebooks purchased through the Borders store will be safe, as will any ebooks purchased from now.
[Kobo]