Bertelsmann’s recent international managers’ meeting focused on plans to invest from €5 billion to €7 billion euros across the company by 2025 — but as the FT underscores, right now the company’s ambition to acquire is facing multiple obstacles. Besides the Simon & Schuster acquisition, now in doubt pending the verdict of Judge Florence Pan, a plan to merge their French television business M6 with the larger TF1 was dropped in September after a hearing before the country’s competition authority, which had “significant problems.” The same month, customer services provider Marjorel — half owned by Bertlesmann — and call center […]
Ingram to Retire Ingram Publisher Services Brand
Ingram Content Group announced Friday a “streamlining of how we run and position our distribution brands.” In January, they will “sunset” the original Ingram Publisher Services brand as a standalone business. IPS clients will be shifted to one of the other four distribution lines: Consortium, Ingram Academic, Two Rivers and Publishers Group West. Ingram Publisher Services will continue as the overarching name for the entire distribution group. VP and GM of Ingram Publisher Services Sabrina McCarthy says in the announcement, “IPS, Ingram’s original distribution brand, has been a well-respected part of Ingram Content Group since 2005, and served as the […]
You Also Get…
It takes at least a few posts to explain just how much material we have packed into our new ebook THE TRIAL. Yes, it has the full opening and closing arguments; the full public testimony of 22 witnesses; Judge Pan’s critical (and lengthy) ruling disallowing Penguin Random House’s evidence about their projected post-merger cost savings and increased revenues; and key pre- and post-trial documents. And yes, at every step of the way it includes the Publishers Lunch overviews and analysis. But that’s not all, of course. At the end, we have culled a selection of over 100 pages of the […]
More on THE TRIAL
Our massive new ebook THE TRIAL: The DOJ’s Suit to Block Penguin Random House’s Acquisition of Simon & Schuster has rocketed to the top 100 at Kobo (up from No. 275155) and is now available through Apple Books as well. (The former clocks us at 2,440 pages, while the latter calls it only 1,448 pages.) Either way, we’re delighted to have this important document out in the world and available to the community. The file will not be available in the Kindle store any time soon because, quite frankly, we can’t afford their margins — but the versions we are […]
Bertelsmann Touts Growth Investments
Penguin Random House senior management is in Gutersloh, Germany now, joining over 500 Bertelsmann colleagues from around the world, for a management meeting. Bertelsmann’s leaders are touting their “Boost” growth plans, expecting to invest between €5 and €7 billion euros across the company’s divisions by 2025. The objective, chief executive Thomas Rabe said, is to raise their results to sales of €24 billion and group profits of €2 billion.
Publishing Today: The Comprehensive Account of THE TRIAL
While publishers large and small are planning to issue versions of the still-unwritten January 6th report, only Publishers Lunch is bold enough (or crazy enough) to bring to market a nearly complete record of THE TRIAL: The DOJ’s Suit to Block Penguin Random House’s Acquisition of Simon & Schuster. It may not be the “big book” of the fall season, but it’s certainly a strong candidate for the biggest book. (Or ebook, since we’re still figuring out the mechanics of doing something so long through print-on-demand.) This digital doorstop, at nearly 700,000 words, brings together the significant day-by-day antitrust trial […]