Rakuten, a Japanese e-commerce company that is building its war chest with e-book and digital media acquisitions over the past year, has reportedly agreed to acquire Viki, a Singapore-based global video streaming platform that crowd-sources translated subtitles. While financial details of the acquisition have not been made public, several media sources are reporting the deal is valued close to $200m.
Rakuten is no stranger to hefty acquisition targets having spent $1.6bn on acquisitions over the past five years. One of its more recent deals of significant value was its $315m cash offer for Kobo, a Canada-based e-reader and e-book company, which was closed last year.
All of its acquisitions have clearly been strategic linking for example its Kobo android-based tablet products, with its other video and media platform services, such as European streaming video platform Wuaki.tv.
Viki in particular offers in-demand content, such as primetime TV shows and movies, but its USP is its crowdsourced subtitles from 22 million users in more than 160 languages, which allows Viki’s content providers to quickly enter new markets.
Japanese billionaire and Rakuten chairman and chief executive officer Hiroshi Mikitani expressed in a statement, according to Bloomberg, that there are a striking number of synergies and shared philosophies between the two companies. Viki, according to Mikitano, removes the language barriers that have traditionally trapped great content inside geographical borders.
Target company Viki was founded in 2010 and has raised about $24.3m to date, however that is only the amount that has been disclosed publicly. Investors to date include a mix of corporate investors and digial media hotshots, such as Sling Media founder and Microsoft executive Blake Krikorian and Survey Monkey chief executive officer Dave Goldberg.
In 2011, Viki raised $20m in a series B round from SK Planet, a subsidiary of mobile South South Korea telecommunication company SK Telecom, and UK broadcasting company, the BBC. Existing backers at the time of that round included venture capital firms Greylock Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Charles River Ventures and early stage incubator Neoteny Labs. The four venture firms previously invested in Viki’s series A round in December, which raised $4.3m.
Viki has in the past signed agreements with US broadcaster NBC Universal, TVB from Hong Kong, SBS from South Korea, Fuji TV from Japan and Amedia from Russia.