Press Release: Rakuten Invests in Digital Content Provider getAbstract AG
TOKYO — July 28, 2016 — Rakuten, Inc. (TSE: 4755) today announced it has agreed to acquire a substantial minority stake in getAbstract AG, the global leader in compressed digital content. With this investment, getAbstract will be positioned for further international expansion.
getAbstract was founded in 1999 by Thomas Bergen and Patrick Brigger with the mission to create the world’s largest catalog of summarized books, reports, articles, videos, and webinars. The company licenses content from many of the world’s largest publishers and media outlets, and provides subscribers with the best in compressed knowledge. Today getAbstract boasts a catalog of more than 14,000 abstracts across seven languages, with a global customer base including numerous Forbes Global 2000 companies.
“Rakuten will continue to accelerate growth of its digital content business globally and we look forward to discovering new synergies with getAbstract as the proven leader in compressed content through its extensive catalog and B2B client portfolio,” commented Takahito Aiki, Managing Executive Officer and President of the Digital Contents Company, Rakuten.
“getAbstract’s success is built on continuous innovation and a commitment to strong relationships with more than 450 publishing partners,” said Thomas Bergen, Co-Founder and CEO of getAbstract. “With this investment and partnership with Rakuten, we are closer than ever before to realizing our vision of bringing compressed digital content to communities across the globe.”
“There is a global appetite for summarized knowledge, be it from books, reports, videos and more,” said Patrick Brigger, Ph.D., Co-Founder and Chairman of getAbstract. “In a time of information overload, getAbstract provides an important curation service to filter out the best knowledge from the less important and then delivers the main points of that knowledge in concise, short summaries. A veritable time saver.”
About getAbstract AG
Founded in 1999, getAbstract is a leading online media company with a mission to help business professionals make better decisions and turn them and their companies into more successful entities by finding, expertly compressing and providing universal access to critical business knowledge in a format that can be quickly and easily absorbed. Millions of users worldwide subscribe to its on-demand compressed knowledge. Its solutions include a library of more than 14,000 getAbstract summaries of business books, business articles, video talks and economic reports, available in text and audio format on popular platforms. Over one-third of Fortune 100 companies use getAbstract to help their employees to make more informed decisions and to drive business performance.
For more information, please visit http://www.getabstract.com.
About Rakuten
Rakuten, Inc. (TSE: 4755) is one of the world's leading internet services companies, offering a wide variety of services for consumers and businesses with a focus on e-commerce, fintech, and digital content. Since 2012, Rakuten has been ranked among the world’s ‘Top 20 Most Innovative Companies’ in Forbes magazine’s annual list. Rakuten is expanding worldwide and currently operates throughout Asia, Europe, the Americas and Oceania. Founded in 1997, Rakuten is headquartered in Tokyo, with over 13,000 employees worldwide.
For more information visit http://global.rakuten.com/corp/.
