In the long-running publisher lawsuit against the Internet Archive for copyright infringement, both sides submitted motions seeking summary judgement to the court on Thursday night, supplemented by extensive witness declarations. While summary judgment for either side is unlikely, the documents provide an updated look at the case, a little more than two years after it was initiated. And formal arguments before Judge John Koeltl won’t happen until the fall, so any ruling on this early stage of the movement to trial will not occur for some time. (Our apologies in advance for any incompleteness today; the filed documents comprise many […]
Ingram to Launch UK Wholesale Service
Ingram Content Group UK will expand its operations — currently focused on print-on-demand and publisher distribution services — to compete as a trade wholesaler of books. SVP David Taylor tells the Bookseller: “We’re pleased to be able to confirm to the British book trade that Ingram is establishing a UK-based wholesale offer for books for any title that we can supply from our Milton Keynes operations. “We will launch the full service in September 2022. Booksellers who already use Ingram Wholesale from our US base will be able to order using our ipage or EDI ordering systems. We have already had […]
Giuntis Grow Quarto Stake
Since last August, Quarto’s controlling owner CK Lau has been steadily increasing his holdings in the company, building to control of over 50 percent of shares by April. Now, following a sharp falloff in Quarto’s stock price since its peak in late April, Lau’s other major partner the Giunti family of Italy, has added to their stake as well. According to a recent UK securities filing, Montecristo 2019, a holding company associated with Andrea Giunti Lombardo, acquired almost one million shares of Quarto stock this week. With the recent purchases, the Giunti family now has control over approximately 9.1 million […]
Acquisitions: RBMedia Acquires Upfront Books
RBMedia announced the acquisition of audiobook publisher Upfront Books, founded in 2019 by Tyler Finkelstein. The company works with publishers, self-published authors, and literary estates. RBmedia CEO Tom MacIsaac said in the release, “We’re impressed with the quality of the business and catalog that Tyler and his team have built in just a few years. This acquisition supports RBmedia’s continued business growth and expansion initiatives.” Upfront says they have a “technology-driven process to identify, license, produce, and publish great titles as audiobooks for the very first time.”
Distribution: Penzler Imprints and Open Road
Otto Penzler has expanded his longtime relationship with Open Road, which has marketed and distributed MysteriousPress.com titles since the line’s founding in 2011. Now Open Road will power the marketing and distribution of ebooks from Penzler Publishers’ American Mystery Classics and Scarlet imprints. (Norton will continue to distribute the print editions.) “Speaking as a bookseller as well as a publisher, it’s clear that Open Road’s eBook marketing technology drives sales increases not only for ebooks, but for the corresponding print editions as well,” Penzler said in the announcement. “We’re looking forward to more growth as Open Road’s marketing technology is […]