Hachette UK has acquired independent publisher Arcadia Books, which will operate within the MacLehose Press imprint at Quercus. Associate publisher Katharina Bielenberg will take over as publisher at Arcadia. Since the death of founder Gary Pulsifer in 2016, the company has been run by Piers Russell-Cobb at MediaFund. Quercus noted in the announcement: “Arcadia has since its inception been passionately committed to publishing a wide and diverse range of voices, with an especially strong list of international literature in translation.”
M&A
Follett School Solutions Acquired By Francisco Partners
Follett Corporation has sold Follett School Solutions, the company’s K-12 software and content division, to tech-focused investment firm Francisco Partners, which owns the K-12 education-focused businesses Renaissance Learning, Discovery Education, Freckle, myON and Mystery Science. Earlier in the year, Francisco bought VitalSource from Ingram Content Group. The terms of the deal were not announced. Follett Corporation will continue to own and operate college bookstores through the Follett Higher Education Group, as well as what remains of Baker & Taylor. Britten Follett, a fifth-generation family member, will become ceo of FSS Content, while Paul Ilse, former ceo of Discovery Education (another […]
McGraw Hill to Acquire Achieve3000
McGraw Hill was the winning bidder in the sale of New Jersey-based edtech company Achieve3000. The deal is expected to close within 60 days, and it underscores support for McGraw from their new private equity owners at Platinum Equity. Terms were not disclosed, but earlier in August, sources told PE Hub that Achieve3000 had sales of about $100 million and EBITDA of $50 million, looking for a robust valuation of over $700 million. In the announcement, managing director at Platinum Equity Luke Myers, said: “We are making good on our pledge to help McGraw Hill accelerate its digital transformation, which […]
Acquisitions: Vox Acquires PRH’s Punch, CliffsNotes Sold
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).
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 […]