Rakuten, the Japanese e-commerce juggernaut that is often referred to as the Eastern version of Amazon, this morning announced that is has acquired Spain’s version of Netflix: streaming and video-on-demand company Wuaki.tv.
The deal marks Rakuten’s fourth European acquisition in just two years and its first entry into the Spanish market.
Founded in 2009, Barcelona-based Wuaki.tv bills itself as an “online videoclub” and offers its users premium content over the Internet streamed directly to ‘Smart TVs’.
The company boasts existing content distribution agreements with major Hollywood as well as local studios, and partnership agreements with TV manufacturers to incorporate its technology into their television sets.
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Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
Wuaki.tv raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Bonsai Capital and Axon Capital. One of its early backers was angel investor -turned-VC Marc Ingla, a Catalan businessman and famously former vice president (and in 2010 nearly president) of football club Futbol Club Barcelona.
Rakuten, meanwhile, continues to make a lot of noise with investments and acquisitions happening all over the world. In recent times, they’ve snapped up companies like Buy.com, Play.com, Kobo, PriceMinister, Ikeda and Tradoria, and invested in businesses like AHAlife.com, OZON and Pinterest.
Here’s out post about the latter investment: Confirmed: Pinterest raises $100 million from Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten, previous backers
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