Quarto announced Tuesday that it had acquired Frances Lincoln Ltd for £4.5m. Quarto chairman Laurence Orbach said in a statement that Frances Lincoln’s non-fiction and illustrated children’s book list “complements Quarto’s existing UK publishing business, several imprints trading under the Aurum name, and more than doubles the scale of our presence in the UK. The acquisition is in keeping with our strategy to further expand our already broad offering of niche content.” For the fiscal year ending March 31, Frances Lincoln reported an audited profit before tax of £619,000, net assets of £3.8 million and gross assets of £5.9 million. […]
Deals
Briefs: University of California Shutters Poetry Program; OFT Signs Off on Bertrams/Dawson Merger; and More
The University of California Press has decided to suspend the publication of its poetry book series New California Poetry after it publishes 3 titles in 2012. Director Alison Mudditt told the LA Times that the decision came about because of budget cuts – it expects to see 10 percent in funding reductions from the university – as well as the “shifting marketplace” for books and publishing. LAT The Office of Fair Trading has been in the headlines of late because of mounting opposition to Amazon’s acquisition of The Book Depository (so much so that UK trade organizations are taking the […]
Briefs: BBC Takes Big Writedown on Lonely Planet; Collins Buys A&R Franchise Stores
BBC Worldwide write down nearly £34 million (or $54 million) on the value of Lonely Planet, after paying £42 million earlier this year for the remaining 25 percent of the company outside of its control. (The BBC bought a 75 percent stake in 2007 for £89 million.) “The strength of the Australian dollar in recent years has led to challenging sales conditions for the Lonely Planet business,” said the company in a statement. “This has been compounded by declines since 2008 in key travel guide markets suffering from the impact of the global financial crisis.” The rise in the Australian […]
Bloomsbury Buys Continuum for $32 Million, Cites “Soft Market” in Interim Statement
Bloomsbury announced that it has bought academic publisher Continuum from Nova/Paul Investments Capital and management shareholders for approximately £20.1 million (or $32 million) in cash. In a statement the company’s board said it “has been looking for a transformational acquisition to act as the cornerstone of its Academic & Professional division.” Continuum marks the sixth academic publisher Bloomsbury has bought over the past five years, and for the first time it provides a New York-based academic publishing office, with its own editorial and marketing team. Continuum forecasts EBITA of £0.6 million for the year ending June 30 on sales of […]
Lunch Weekly for Monday, June 27
Deal Reports Just e-mail to deals@PublishersMarketplace if you aren’t using the online form linked below. Report a deal using the online form The Key As usual, the handy key to our Lunch deal categories. While all reports are always welcome, those that include a category will generally receive a higher listing when it comes time to put them all together. “nice deal” $1 – $49,000 “very nice deal” $50,000 – $99,000 “good deal” $100,000 – $250,000 “significant deal” $251,000 – $499,000 “major deal” $500,000 and up FICTION Debut Former editor at Houghton Mifflin and Da Capo, Wendy Francis’ THREE GOOD […]
People, Etc.
Martin H. Greenberg died June 25 after a long battle with cancer. He was 70 years old. Greenberg founded Green Bay, WI-based book packager Tekno Books, which produces about 150 titles per year and has over 2,300 published books translated into 33 languages, and was a longtime professor and the first Director of Graduate Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, retiring as Professor Emeritus in 1996. In nearly forty years of working in the publishing field, he also edited hundreds of anthologies, both by himself and with notable partners such as Isaac Asimov, Ed Gorman and Robert Silverberg in […]