News Corp.’s agreement to acquire Harlequin and F+W’s acquisition by Tinicum are among the biggest deals in what has already been a busy year for mergers and acquisitions among book publishing related companies — along with the failed deal to sell Perseus to Hachette Book Group and Ingram. (This was originally posted in early May, and then updated multiple times thereafter.) Among the announced deals (some of which have not closed yet) since January 1, 2014 are: Hachette Book Group > Black Dog & Leventhal Start Publishing > Cleis Press Bonnier Publishing > Igloo Books AGI > Vigliano Associates Apa Publishing […]
Archives for May 2014
People
At Penguin Random House Audio, Louise Quayle returns to the company, as senior acquisitions editor. She was previously director of domestic rights in the Doubleday group, before moving to The Robbins Office. Catherine Bucaria was promoted to assistant acquisitions editor, and Emily Parliman was hired as assistant acquisitions editor a few weeks ago, reporting to Rebecca Waugh. Also, Stephanie Grossman joins the unit today as a marketing associate in BOT library marketing. At Simon & Schuster Children’s, Emma Ledbetter has been promoted to associate editor, Atheneum Books, while Dani Young moves up to associate editor, S&S Books for Young Readers/Atheneum/McElderry Books. […]
New Investors Take Control of F+W
F+W has sold a majority stake in the company — which just rebranded itself as “a digital-first content and service provider for devoted enthusiasts” — to New York-based private investment firm Tinicum and affiliated funds. F+W ceo David Nussbaum says in the announcement, “This investment will enable us to continue to rapidly grow our ecommerce revenues by building on our platforms and creating best-in-class content and ecommerce solutions. Our singular focus on our communities and creating an unrivaled experience for our consumers will not change.” Nussbaum told employees in a written message that “having the backing of one of the top private equity […]
News Corp. to Acquire Harlequin
News Corp. will acquire Harlequin Enterprises from Torstar for C$455 million (the final price was $414 million in US dollars, net of $19 million in cash on Harlequin’s balance sheet). Harlequin will become a division of HarperCollins but will remain headquartered in Toronto. Torstar originally acquired control of Harlequin in 1975 and full ownership in 1981. Both parties said they expect the deal to close by the end of September, pending approval by regulatory bodies in both US and Canada, as well as Torstar shareholders. (It’s possible that the deal would be subject to review in other territories as well, primarily […]
People, Awards, Etc.
At Crown, Julian Pavia has been promoted to senior editor, while Christine Kopprasch moves up to editor. At Penguin, Kristin Spang has been promoted to publishing manager and manager of special initiatives at Penguin, and Lily Rudd has been promoted to publishing coordinator. Both continue to report to Susan Petersen Kennedy. At Seven Stories Press, Amy L. Hayden has been promoted to publicity manager. In addition, Ian Dreiblatt has joined as publicist. Previously he was New York manager for Dalkey Archive Press. Christina Faubert has joined Scribd as content acquisition manager, based in New York, working on “finding new publisher […]
Appeals Court Revives One Part of Authors’ Suit Against Harlequin
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals reversed one part of Judge Harold Baer’s ruling from a year ago dismissing a class-action lawsuit brought by authors against Harlequin alleging that the publisher deprived them of ebook royalties. As a result, the suit will resume in its limited form, and is sent back to the District Court “for further proceedings.” The single claim that was restored (from the four claims initially made by the authors) by the Appeals Court is the contention that the licensing fees for ebook rights paid by Harlequin Enterprises to the party of record, Harlequin Switzerland, were not […]