[Michlib-l] Fwd: Important news regarding OverDrive and RBdigital

Tue Jun 23 12:06:45 EDT 2020

Fyi, the news of the forthcoming discontinuance of the RBdigital platform and merger into OverDrive, from the OverDrive perspective. 

Jim 

Jim Flury 
Technical Services Manager 
The Library Network 
41365 Vincenti Court 
Novi, MI 48375 
248-536-3100, ext 133 
Fax 248-536-3098 
jflury at tln.lib.mi.us 

From: "OverDrive" <overdrive at e.overdrive.com> 
To: "Jim Flury" <jflury at tln.lib.mi.us> 
Sent: Tuesday, June 23, 2020 12:00:46 PM 
Subject: Important news regarding OverDrive and RBdigital 

Earlier this year, I shared with you the news of the acquisition of OverDrive by the New York-based global investment firm KKR 
[ https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__click.e.overdrive.com_-3Fqs-3D310a47485340a52ffa8799334d26372a563fd8f2e2a0c9d0a9d14d62d58985ff3214996430ec1f7e4fad73caf061a11c061364251f0942df&d=DwMDaQ&c=euGZstcaTDllvimEN8b7jXrwqOf-v5A_CdpgnVfiiMM&r=VZwzE-ihmVk8MWnuOKeBhdzjlCVxa_pma10LdYu6QtI&m=TRPgo1f_j5Oi5YExA8iJyMMvHGL-oHqb2_YwDyR3bVQ&s=LYF6BXIwEi42Q7P6vosiMAXV951nioOgCwSD15Tax3c&e= | 

 ] 
Dear Jim, 

Earlier this year, I shared with you the news of the acquisition of OverDrive by the New York-based global investment firm KKR. KKR supports our leadership and mission serving public libraries, schools and readers around the world. We are excited to leverage KKR’s broad publishing, media and technology relationships to further enhance how we acquire content for your digital collection and deliver solutions to your staff and readers. 

We are happy to announce that the deal has closed. As part of this acquisition, we are also pleased to share some additional relevant news. 

Many of you know that KKR also owns RBmedia, a digital publishing business which includes Recorded Books and the RBdigital lending platform. KKR’s investment and efforts in RBmedia and OverDrive represent their deep and ongoing commitment to offering the best catalog of digital content, products and services to public libraries, schools, and academic and corporate libraries. 

Many libraries have told us that they would benefit from having Recorded Books and RBmedia content broadly available on the OverDrive platform and would welcome a reduction in the effort required to manage collection development and patron support on their digital platforms. With these goals in mind, OverDrive will acquire RBmedia’s digital library business, specifically the RBdigital platform in North America, the United Kingdom and Australia. 

This means that over the coming months, all RBdigital library customers and RBdigital app users will be migrated to the OverDrive platform and Libby. We expect that the OverDrive platform will be enhanced with content that was unique to the RBdigital platform, including new Recorded Books audiobook releases, and we will be exploring additional content relationships such as digital magazines from ZINIO. After the customer and patron migration is complete, the RBdigital platform will be discontinued. 

There will be no change to RBmedia’s market-leading publishing businesses which will continue to supply their titles to libraries and direct-to-consumer services worldwide. These brands include Recorded Books, Tantor Media, HighBridge, Kalorama Audio, ChristianAudio, Gildan Media, GraphicAudio, W.F. Howes in the United Kingdom, and Wavesound in Australia. 

What this means to you 

    * If you are a customer of RBdigital, we are committed to keeping you well informed as we prepare to make this transition and as we continue to serve your patrons during this transition. Once the migration is complete, we will provide the same high quality experience and service now complemented with the new collections of titles from the RBdigital catalog. We will provide more details, including FAQs, as we get closer to the date of the initial migrations. 
    * If your library is not a customer of RBdigital, there will be no change to your OverDrive service. Once we make updates to OverDrive Marketplace, you will be alerted to the new collections of RBmedia content available for your collection on the OverDrive platform. 

What’s next 

To librarians offering your readers the RBdigital service, you will receive details about the planned migration in the coming weeks. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to your OverDrive Account Manager or drop me a note. 

I am truly excited by this development as we continue to offer your library access to the best collection of digital content, the best service, and deliver proven value for your budget. On behalf of Team OverDrive, thank you for your partnership. 

[ https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__click.e.overdrive.com_-3Fqs-3D310a47485340a52fc93fb49bdbf074861b06821975977ff61317c04fd5e3915345c80140ef111a16846ef071a9bc24b4a5222c7db2dd1f85&d=DwMDaQ&c=euGZstcaTDllvimEN8b7jXrwqOf-v5A_CdpgnVfiiMM&r=VZwzE-ihmVk8MWnuOKeBhdzjlCVxa_pma10LdYu6QtI&m=TRPgo1f_j5Oi5YExA8iJyMMvHGL-oHqb2_YwDyR3bVQ&s=UGBfn3GpLdW7VdetdoPf_YrAw3wrOFjbuVuAZlUHNPk&e= | Privacy policy ] 

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