Lagardere and Bertelsmann issued short first quarter highlight reports on Thursday morning. The more detailed report comes from Lagardere, where the book publishing division had sales of €442 million, up €2 million from a year ago. Last year’s acquisitions — primarily Brainbow, Bookouture, Summersdale and Jessica Kingsley — added €12 million in sales, while the weakening US dollar and British pound cost the unit -€23 million in foreign exchange. Lagardere says that sales in the US showed “solid growth, up 5.4%, lifted by the continued success of the backlist, especially Pete Souza’s Obama: An Intimate Portrait, and by a busy release schedule at Grand […]