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Archives for December 2017
Bertram Books and Related Units Sold
Connect Group announced an agreement to sell their books division to Australian private equity firm Aurelius for £10.6 million, with up to another £1.05 later based on various contingencies. The unit comprises UK wholesaler Bertram Books, Bertram Library Services, online bookseller Wordery, and academic supplier Dawson Books, plus subsidiaries including Erasmus and Houtschild in the Netherlands and France. Managing director Justin Adams and his management team will stay with the division following the sale. Adams said in a statement, “In Aurelius I believe we have found an owner that has the financial and operational capabilities to help us on our journey to build […]
2017: The Year In Agency Mergers and Moves
Supplementing yesterday’s The Year In Mergers, Acquisitions and Finance, this year saw a number of literary agency mergers — along with some significant movement by well-known agents, and even a few marquee authors. So here is a round-up. Many of the year’s notable mergers and acquisitions among literary agencies, as well as new agency launches, happened in the UK: [Acquirer/Seller or merged properties] Curtis Brown UK > Ed Victor Ltd (Following the death of Ed Victor in June) Later in the year, Charlie Brotherstone, who had been at Ed Victor Ltd., opened his own agency, Brotherstone Creative Management. And the Raymond […]
People, Etc.
At Random House Children’s, Kristin Schulz has been promoted to manager, school & library marketing. Emily Petrick has been promoted to assistant manager, school & library marketing. Joyce Lin has joined Chronicle Books as food and lifestyle publicist. Previously she was a culinary publicity associate at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. PEN America announced longlists for their 2018 Literary Awards. Prizes include the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize For Debut Fiction, the PEN Open Book Award, the PEN Translation Prize, and four other awards, with ten finalists in each category.
Trade Was Flat In August (But Up Compared to the Original 2016 Numbers)
The AAP released their StatShot statistics for August sales, with unremarkable results for the trade, which was mostly flat — if you take the new report at face value. Net trade sales for August were $608.7 million, up marginally ($3.3 million) from the same month a year ago. In contrast, gross print shipments — before returns, which is the better indicator of current and future sales — were $595.5 million for the month, down a modest 1.9 percent (or $11.7 million). But the real reason sales look flat is because the historical comparison data for August 2016 was revised upwards. […]
2017: The Year In Mergers, Acquisitions and Finance
Anyone who thinks it was a quiet year for publishing mergers, acquisitions and finance doesn’t understand what happened very well. It was in fact both an active and fascinating year. First and foremost, 2017 saw one of the biggest trade publishing deals ever. We’re talking about the transaction hiding in plain sight, in which Bertelsmann acquired an additional 22 percent of Penguin Random House from Pearson, for actual cash. Remember that when Random House and Penguin merged in July 2013, it was a mammoth “deal” in that it created the world’s largest trade publishing company, but no money actually changed […]