NPD group, owner of Bookscan in the US, announced a deal to be acquired by private equity firm Hellman & Friedman. The investor has over $80 billion under management, and recently raised a new $24.4 billion fund. NPD executive ehairman Tod Johnson and CEO Karyn Schoenbart will “retain a minority stake in the business and continue to serve on the NPD board of directors.” The privately-held NPD is estimated by Dun & Bradstreet to have annual sales of approximately $300 million. Johnson says in the announcement, “Both Karyn and I are delighted to have the opportunity to partner as minority […]
M&A
OverDrive Acquires TeachingBooks.net
OverDrive Education has acquired TeachingBooks.net, which provides supplemental materials to K-12 schools “to enrich how a book is taught in the classroom,” currently licensed to over 55,000 schools and libraries around the world. The deal enhances the offerings of OverDrive’s Sora app, which provides ebooks and audiobooks to students. The terms of the deal were not announced. OverDrive founder and ceo Steve Potash said, “TeachingBooks has compiled and created one of the most valuable collection of resources for the books that are essential for student reading. OverDrive’s Marketplace, the largest catalog of digital books for student reading programs, combined with […]
Wiley Acquires J&J Editorial
Wiley has acquired J&J Editorial Services, a scholarly publishing services company founded by Jennifer Deyton and Julie Nash in 2008. “Acquiring J&J Editorial underlines our promise to provide our partners with best-in-class solutions, from products and services to specialist expertise, creating more choice in the publishing ecosystem,” Wiley evp & general manager, research Jay Flynn said. “We are very excited to join Wiley,” Deyton said. “This was a strategic decision that was made with two clear and long-standing goals in mind – to help us continue to deliver the high standard of service that our clients expect, while simultaneously providing […]
Politikens Expands Into Norway With Acquisition
Danish publisher JP/Politikens has acquired a 70 percent stake in Norwegian nonfiction publishers Kagge and J.M. Stenersens, which together comprise Norway’s fifth largest publishing group. Politikens says the acquisition “fulfills its ambition to create a significant Scandinavian publishing group with strong, independent publishers in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark.” They established Polaris in Sweden in 2017, and acquired Swedish nonfiction publishing house Roos & Tegnér in early 2021. Kagge and J.M. Stenersens will continue to function as independent publishers and Jorunn Sandsmark will remain publishing director. Kagge founder Erling Kagge continues as publisher, board member, and co-owner with the remaining 30 percent […]
Acquisitions: Rough Edges Press to Wolfpack
Wolfpack Publishing has acquired author James Reasoner’s Rough Edges Press. The line will become an imprint of Wolfpack, publishing new mysteries, thrillers, and crime fiction.
HBG Completes Acquisition of Workman
Hachette Book Group announced it has completed its $240 million acquisition of Workman. As previously announced, Workman ceo Dan Reynolds will head the group, reporting to HBG ceo Michael Pietsch, and will join the Executive Management Board. Pietsch said, “This is a significant and exciting milestone for Hachette Book Group, as we welcome an extraordinary publisher to HBG. We have deep admiration for Workman’s publishing, its people, its authors and illustrators, its books, its commitment to backlist and its culture. The opportunity for HBG to join forces with Workman is one I believe will be enormously beneficial to both companies, […]