Franklin Electronic Publishers has reached agreement with MobiPocket.com S.A. of Paris, France, and its major shareholder, Viventures Partners, to purchase one half of the venture capital stake which Viventures owns in MobiPocket and its eBook reader.

This purchase will increase Franklin's share in MobiPocket to more than 25%. MobiPocket said its software reader application enables the reading and distribution of electronic text across all existing OS platforms, including Palm OS, Pocket PC OS, Symbian OS, and Franklin's proprietary operating systems.

Barry J. Lipsky, President and Chief Executive Officer of Franklin said, "When we first took a minority interest in MobiPocket it was due to the synergies we saw between our companies. As Franklin continues its focus on devices, it's always been clear to us the importance of the content availability and an intuitive software reader application."

Prior to the equity transaction, MobiPocket and Franklin had partnered together to bring the MobiPocket Reader to Franklin's Bookman platform. Using the MobiPocket Reader, the companies said Bookman users have access to over 8000 eBook titles.