CEO Mikitani, a clean cut 47-year-old Harvard graduate with a jutting chin, founded an online shopping mall in Japan in 1997 and called it Rakuten – the Japanese word for "optimistic." He soon went on his own spree starting in 2000, investing in numerous companies on an ongoing basis and even founding a sports business. His acquisitions have ranged from the low-interest consumer loan company Aozora Card in August 2004 to the Canadian e-book business Kobo, Inc. in Nov. 2011. The recent Wuaki.tv acquisition marks Rakuten's fourth European one in just two years.