Trustbridge Global Media, an affiliate of Shanghai-based private equity and venture capital firm Trustbridge Partners, bought children’s publisher Peachtree Publishers in a deal that closed November 7. The company will now be called Peachtree Publishing Company. Based in Atlanta, the publisher has operated since 1977, and maintains a backlist of adult titles in addition to children’s books….
Finance
Corporate News: Barnes TV, Barnes & Smith, and An Interactive Peter Rabbit
Barnes & Noble is previewing their new “Nobody Knows Books Like We Do” holiday video ads, to be featured on cable TV and movie screens. The general ads are available on their YouTube channel, but they have yet to post what sound like the most interesting spots: A collection of 15-second videos “that celebrate the…
WH Smith Was The Potential Barnes & Noble Buyer
The WSJ names the “book retailer” that made offers to buy Barnes & Noble last spring that fell apart on June 19, as described in Demos Parneros’s defamation and breach of contract lawsuit against the retailer, and the company’s answer to those charges and countersuit. “People familiar with the situation say it was WH Smith…
Dark Horse Sells Stake to Chinese Investor; Former Bonnier Execs Launch New Publisher; Even Kobe Bryant Is A Publisher Now
Dark Horse Comics founder and ceo Mike Richardson sold a substantial stake in the company — for what one report suggests was about $20 million — to Hong-Kong based Vanguard Visionary Assets, associated with former Walt Disney Company in Greater China chairman Stanley Cheung. Cheung joins the five-person Dark Horse Entertainment board. Richardson declined to…
Quad/Graphics Buys LSC in Major Consolidation of Printing
The two largest North American printers are becoming one: Wisconsin-based Quad/Graphics will buy its primary competitor, print services provider LSC Communications (the print spin-off from RR Donnelley). The all-stock deal is valued by the company at about $1.4 billion (perhaps expressing the enterprise value, since the value of the stock exchange looks to be more…
WH Smith Comes to the US with InMotion Acquisition; Penguin Random Takes Majority Stake at Companhia das Letras
UK retailer WH Smith is buying Jacksonville, FL-based travel electronics retailer InMotion for $198 million. InMotion sells electronics including headphones, earbuds, mobile power and portable speakers at 43 US airports, further expanding WH Smith’s growing travel division. Perhaps more significantly, WH Smith says the acquisition will “support the launch and growth of WH Smith’s airport…