The UK’s second-largest book wholesaler Bertram’s is reportedly about to appoint bankruptcy administrators, the Sunday Times reported. That puts in jeopardy about 400 jobs, and considerable sums owed to publishers — despite Bertram’s being owned by investment group Aurelius. The owners have already cashed in some of Bertram’s liquid assets, announcing the sale of online bookstore Wordery to Elliott Advisors on Friday. (Elliott says they will run the company separately from Waterstones and Barnes & Noble.) In early April, they sold two other subsidiaries: Dutch antiquarian bookseller Erasmus and academic book and journal supplier Houtschild International were sold to Casalini […]
Archives for May 2020
McGraw-Hill and Cengage Terminate Merger
McGraw-Hill and Cengage announced May 4 that they have mutually agreed to terminate their planned merger. McGraw-Hill said “the required divestitures would have made the merger uneconomical,” while Cengage cited “a prolonged regulatory review process and the inability to agree to a divestitures package with the US Department of Justice.” Under the terms of the merger agreement, which the companies have repeatedly called a “merger of equals,” neither company will pay a termination fee. Both the DOJ and the UK’s Competition Markets Authority said the companies would have to divest certain courses where they were the chief competitors before approval. […]
The Deals Are Alright
As you may have noticed informally, deal reports have been looking pretty steady over the past month at PublishersMarketplace.com, and with April coming to an end, we can share some data on dealmaking patterns since the pandemic hit. Broadly speaking, deal volumes were strong in the first half of March up until the cancelled London Book Fair. As companies moved to work from home and shelter-in-place orders rolled out across the country, deal reports got much quieter in second half of March. But April has seen a steady pick up in reports. Looking at the month on its own, we […]
May Picks
Amazon‘s Spotlight Pick for May is Mikel Jollett’s Hollywood Park (you can sample an excerpt now in Buzz Books 2020 Spring/Summer) and its featured debut is Natalie Jenner’s The Jane Austen Society. The rest of the picks: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, by Suzanne Collins Almond, by Won-Pyung Sohn All Adults Here, by Emma Straub Dirt, by Bill Buford Boys of Alabama, by Genevieve Hudson The Hour of Fate, by Susan Berfield Fire In Paradise, by Alastair Gee and Dani Anguiano Take Me Apart, by Sara Sligar Good Morning America chose Anna Solomon‘s The Book of V. (also excerpted […]