Vox Media acquired the online magazine about “drinks and drinking culture” Punch from Penguin Random House, to pair with their Eater franchise. Co-founder Talia Baiocchi remains with Punch as editor-in-chief. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt sold CliffsNotes to online learning platform Course Hero. HMH had acquired the line from Wiley in 2012 — which acquired it as part of their Hungry Minds/IDG Books purchase in 2001 (following IDG’s acquisition from founder Cliff Hillegass in 1998 for $14.2 million).
M&A
Finance: Quarto Owner Keeps Buying; Springer’s PE Co-Owner Solved Their Problem
In a series of purchases this month, Quarto’s controlling shareholder CK Lau and his company 1010 Printing Limited have increased their holdings in the publisher. 1010 Printing acquired another 125,000 shares — giving them just over 37 percent of shares outstanding — and Lau personally acquired another 60,000 shares, holding a little over 4 percent of the company. At the higher end of the financial landscape, repeated efforts by the Springer Nature joint venture to launch an IPO are off the table following a refinancing earlier this summer. Private equity firm BC Partners, which owned a 47 percent share (alongside […]
HBG to Acquire Workman For $240 Million
Hachette Book Group and Workman Publishing officially announced Monday “a binding commitment” for HBG to acquire Workman (as we had hinted recently). The transaction is expected to close after the standard 35-day regulatory review period. Workman comprises six imprints: Workman, Algonquin, Algonquin Young Readers, Artisan, Storey Publishing, and Timber Press, and has a small group of distribution clients. HBG will pay $240 million, a 1.8 multiple over Workman’s sales of $134 million in 2020 — when they were up 12 percent over 2019, so about $120 million the year before. That is about the same multiple of sales that HarperCollins […]
FTC Makes Second Request In Review of ProQuest Sale to Clarivate
On July 28 the Federal Trade Commission made a second request for information in their review of Clarivate’s pending $5.3 billion acquisition of ProQuest. Clarivate announced that as a result, the parties extended the outside date for completion of the deal to December 31. Both Clarivate and ProQuest “each have the option to extend the new outside date to April 29, 2022.” As we noted previously, second requests are generally issued for only 2 to 4 percent of Hart-Scott-Rodino transactions — and as law firm Winston & Strawn advised, “most Second Requests result in a settlement, litigation to block the transaction, or […]
Acquisitions: Canelo Acquires Hera Books
UK-based Canelo has acquired Hera Books and will operate it as a subsidiary. Canelo previously provided publishing support and services to Hera. As a result, co-founder and managing director Lindsey Mooney will leave Hera. Canelo md Iain Millar will become Hera’s md, and Keshini Naidoo will stay on as publishing director. In a release, Millar said, “We were thrilled to work with this fantastic team as it launched and then took off. This next phase should mean both Hera and Canelo have even more impact.” Keshini Naidoo noted, “Building Hera alongside one of my oldest friends has been one of […]
Arcadia Acquires Commonwealth
Local history book publisher Arcadia Publishing has acquired Commonwealth Editions from Applewood Books; the terms of the deal were undisclosed. Applewood will continue to handle sales and distribution for Commonwealth titles “for the foreseeable future.”