OverDrive, Inc.
American digital distributor of digital entertainment
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| March 2025 | Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins suspended state funding to OverDrive for K-12 school libraries, citing unspecified allegations about inappropriate materials accessible to minors. The Missouri Library Association responded by emphasizing librarians' ability to control and categorize content access by student age. |
| 2023 | The American Library Association released a report on the Digital Public Library Ecosystem that raised concerns about user data privacy in the partnership between OverDrive's Libby app and Amazon's Kindle app, specifically highlighting the uncertainty around what user data Amazon could access and use from books read through the platform. |
| 2023 | The American Library Association released a report on the Digital Public Library Ecosystem, which revealed that younger users were largely unaware that local libraries fund digital services through apps like OverDrive's Libby. |
| 2023 | A market report estimated OverDrive's market share in digital content distribution as potentially exceeding 90%, establishing it as the largest commercial provider of digital content worldwide. |
| March 2023 | OverDrive announced plans to sunset its flagship app on May 1, 2023, transitioning users to the Libby reading app. |
| July 15 2021 | OverDrive completed the acquisition of Kanopy. |
| June 9 2021 | OverDrive announced a deal to acquire Kanopy, a leading on-demand streaming video platform for public and academic libraries. |
| June 2020 | KKR finalized the acquisition of OverDrive. RBMedia sold its library assets to OverDrive, including the RBDigital app and service. |
| 2019 | Private equity firm KKR was reported to be purchasing OverDrive from Rakuten, with an estimated market value of $775 million. |
| 2017 | OverDrive introduced Sora, an educational reading app designed specifically for K-12 students to access digital reading materials through school libraries. |
| April 2015 | Rakuten purchased OverDrive for $410 million, with CEO Steve Potash remaining in his position. |
| 2014 | OverDrive completed its headquarters in Garfield Heights, Ohio. |
| 2012 | The company introduced a browser-based eReader, audiobook streaming, a media station for digital collection browsing, and developed an API for content integration. Additionally, they partnered with LexisNexis for a digital library platform and Nokia to launch a reading app for Windows Phone devices. |
| 2011 | OverDrive launched the Libby app, a user-friendly digital reading platform for accessing ebooks and audiobooks from public libraries. |
| September 21 2011 | OverDrive began supporting Kindle public library book borrowing. |
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