Kobo acquires Aquafadas

E-reader company Kobo on Wednesday announced plans to acquire Aquafadas, a French developer of digital publishing software. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.

Aquafadas is best known to Mac users as the developer of video and multimedia creation software. Their Mac apps include MotionComposer, PulpMotion, BannerZest and iDive. They’ve been around since 2004.

In recent years, Aquafadas has turned to the burgeoning digital publishing business to expand its portfolio. The company makes products used by magazine, book, comic and newspaper publishers to produce content for digital distribution.

Kobo, based in Canada, manufactures e-reader tablets that priced to compete with offerings from Amazon.com and other companies. The company also has a royalty structure that favors publishers somewhat better than some other e-reader platforms. Kobo’s e-readers are particularly popular in Canada and France.

Kobo said that the Aquafadas acquisition will “further enhance Kobo Writing Life,” Kobo’s own self-publishing platform.