The fast-growing Swedish audiobook streaming service Storytel received a boost from big Swedish-based private equity and investment firm EQT’s Private Value. In a press release issued Tuesday, the company revealed that EQT recently acquired 6.6 million shares in Storytel, close to 10 percent of shares outstanding. EQT Public Value’s Joakim Rubin has been nominated as a director of Storytel. Also making news is the nomination of board member Stefan Blom to take over as chair from longtime leader Rustan Panday. Blom was a c-suite executive at Spotify for seven years. Storytel shares rose over 8 percent on Tuesday on the […]
Audio
Acquisitions: Saga Egmont Adds German Publisher
Digital publisher Saga Egmont has acquired German audiobook publisher Audiobuch Verlag, making them the largest audiobook publisher in Germany.
Imprints: RBmedia Rebrands Business Titles
RBmedia will publish their business audiobooks under the new brand, Ascent Audio. The line is the successor to their Gildan Media brand (which they acquired in 2017). All of their business titles produced in partnership with other publishers will be issued under the Ascent Audio name, with the recently acquired McGraw Hill Professional business titles publishing under a joint McGraw Hill-Ascent brand.
DOJ Nominee Kanter Has Been Aiding Authors Advocating for Fairness From Audible
Author Susan May, writing on behalf of Audiblegate, tells supporters by email that various legal moves are planned as part of authors’ continuing efforts for transparency and fairness in how Audible reports and records royalties. Notably, the group’s “legal team” includes Jonathan Kanter — recently nominated to run the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division — alongside Shaoul Sussman at Pearl Cohen. The two “have begun work on a legal memo” that Shaoul says, “will be a detailed paper on how Audible gained market dominance and maintained that control through the illegal breaches of antitrust laws.” They plan to deliver that […]
People, Etc.: Dan Frank Dies at 67
Tiffany Liao joins Zando on June 9 as executive editor leading their young readers initiative. She was previously senior editor at Holt Children’s. Alisse Goldsmith-Wissman has joined Convergent as senior publicist. She was previously at Independent Publishers Group in Chicago. Caitlin Morrow has joined the Simon & Schuster special markets sales team as assistant manager. Martha Wydysh has been promoted to literary agent at Trident Media Group. Adam O’Brien has joined Apollo Publishers as an editor. Previously, he was editor at Sterling Publishing. Dan Frank, 67, editorial director of Pantheon since 1996, died on May 24 in Manhattan. Knopf evp […]
People, Etc.
At Delacorte, Kelsey Horton has been promoted to senior editor and Alison Romig has been promoted to assistant editor. Merry Sun has been promoted to editor at Portfolio. Jordan Moblo has joined Netflix in the new role of director of literary, and is expected to hire a team under him. He was co-head of the creative acquisitions department at Disney. Renée Jarvis and Kima Jones both join Triangle House Literary as agents. Jarvis was at MacKenzie Wolf Literary; Jones is the founder of Jack Jones Literary Arts. Grace Ross has joined Acast as content development manager, acquiring new and existing podcast partners. […]