Wiley announced another sizable acquisition, agreeing to pay $175 million in cash to purchase French-based learning solutions provider CrossKnowledge, which focuses on leadership and managerial skills development. The deal is expected to close on May 1. Wiley has been investing heavily in their professional development division, and acquired a related firm, Profiles International, less than two weeks ago. CEO Steve Smith says the two purchases, along with Inscape (which they bought in 2012 for $85 million), “positions us as a leader in the rapidly-growing area of enterprise talent management. In today’s knowledge-based economy, organizations of all different shapes and sizes […]
Financing/Start-Ups
People, Etc.
At Scribner, Lauren Lavelle has been promoted to publicity manager, and Gwyneth Stansfield moves up to publicist. Riverhead art director Helen Yentus won the ADC Art + Craft Design Prize for her much talked about 3D-printed book design for Chang-rae Lee’s On Such a Full Sea. Booktrack, which synchronizes soundtracks to ebooks, announced the completion of $3 million in Series A financing led by Sparkbox Ventures. The company is expanding into education with Booktrack Classroom, which gives students free access to soundtracked ebooks. Simon & Schuster has officially adjusted the release date for Hillary Clinton‘s still-untitled new memoir to June […]
Wattpad Takes $46 Million It Doesn’t Need Yet; PRH UK Announces Reader Bookshelves; New eBook Courses and Certificates
Wattpad announced in a press release that it has raised $46 million in Series C funding, led by OMERS Ventures with participation from August Capital, Raine Ventures, and Northleaf Venture Catalyst Fund. Wattpad’s existing investors also participated in the round. The company will use the funds to expand their staff in Toronto and move to new office space, along with “support[ing] product development and community growth.” CEO Allen Lau admits to Gigaom they don’t really need the money, and still have much of their previous round of $17.3 million in financing from 2012 on hand. Over half of their users […]
Small Demons to Close If No Buyer Emerges
In perhaps another sign of the disconnect between conference veneration of the new and shiny and the daunting challenges of building a scalable business around new uses of other people’s content, California-based Small Demons has indicated to publishers in a letter cited by the Bookseller that it will cease operations on November 25 unless a buyer emerges. Backed by approximately $2.4 million in equity funding and additional borrowings, Small Demons aims to “connect all the details of books,” extracting the people, places and things mentioned — including songs, movies, food, cars, fashion items, and more. The company says that a planned sale […]
Briefs: AudioGo Suspends Operations Pending Sale; Inkling Acquires OpenAir
UK-based audiobook publisher AudioGo has suspended operations and is looking for an investment or outright sale, the company’s head of sales and marketing Rachel Josephson confirmed to the the Bookseller. She added: “There is a considerable amount of interest in AudioGO and we are hopeful of achieving a swift resolution. Protecting and respecting the rights of everyone that we work with is uppermost in our considerations and we are grateful for the fantastic support we have received from our colleagues throughout the industry.” The company recently sold its US-based arm Blackstone Audio back to its founders, just ten months after […]
Finally, An Internet Guy Is Reinventing Publishing
As you know, there’s a bull market for overblown startups claiming to reinvent publishing. NetMinds is the latest of those to make a media tour, with a press release timed in conjunction with today’s TOC conference and their first book set for publication in March (though the company was founded in 2011 and has announced itself previously). On the one hand, the company is somewhere between harmless and hilarious: check out their web site. Would you want to engage with a publishing enterprise that has so much trouble explaining what it does, while wrapping it in so many layers of […]