Amazon Publishing is adding an Amazon Crossing Kids imprint, publishing children’s picture books in translation, with three announced titles, for publication beginning in July. Two Lions editorial director Kelsey Skea is editorial director of Amazon Crossing Kids as well, working in collaboration with Two Lions editor Marilyn Brigham and Amazon Crossing editorial director Gabriella Page-For. Separately, Random House Children’s announced the launch list of three titles, starting in September, for Christopher Myers‘ Make Me A World imprint, which started in 2016, originally aiming for a 2018 debut. He says in the release: “Imagine inviting all the smartest people, the artists and […]
M&A
Children’s Publishing: Executives Buy Bonnier’s US Children’s Lines; Sourcebooks Adds Three Imprints
Continuing last year’s developments that saw changes in leadership at Bonnier Books’ English-language divisions and a slimming of their lines (including the sale of Weldon Owen to Insight Editions), the company has sold the children’s publishing lines that comprised Bonnier Books USA. CEO Shimul Tolia and cfo Thomas Morgan have bought the division from Bonnier Books. Tolia and Morgan founded Little Bee in 2014, as the first part of Bonnier Books US. The company will continue to publish under the established three imprints: Little Bee Books, BuzzPop, and Yellow Jacket. They will remain in their current offices, and continued to be distributed by […]
Ingram Entertainment Buys Baker & Taylor Entertainment
Ingram purchased “certain assets” from Baker & Taylor in a deal that closed January 11 — but the buyer was Ingram Entertainment, the video and home entertainment distributor, not Ingram Content Group, and they acquired B&T’s entertainment products distribution division (including “retail customer agreements for the purchase of video and audio music products”). Reportedly, the Federal Trade Commission had been conducting a “preliminary nonpublic investigation” into booksellers’ use of major wholesalers in what some suggested was anticipation of potential acquisition by Ingram Content Group of Baker & Taylor’s book wholesaling business. But Baker & Taylor president David Cully underscores in the press […]
German Booksellers Thalia and Mayersche Announce Intended Merger
In a surprise move, two German bookstores — Thalia, the market leader, and Mayersche, a large regional chain — announced plans to merge, a deal that will first need to be approved by Germany’s Federal Cartel Office. While terms of the deal remain undisclosed, the Falter family, which owns Mayersche, will become partners in the consortium that owns Thalia, which includes the Herder and Kreke families, Leif Göritz, and Thalia ceo Michael Busch. Mayersche’s ceo, Helmut Falter, will join the consortium as a managing partner and member of the board, tasked with the integration of the two companies and future corporate […]
Vivendi Gets Greenlight to Acquire Editis
The French government’s competition authority has approved Vivendi’s acquisition of Editis, the second-largest book publisher in France after Hachette Livre, finding that the transaction “was not likely to undermine competition in the markets for cultural property.” The Authority “took into account the respective market shares of the parties, the organization of the relevant markets, the competitive pressure exerted by the competitors and the counter-power of certain customers, in particular in the digital sector” and dismissed “any competition problem.” The €900 million deal was formalized in mid-November after several months of negotiations, and is now expected to close right away. Owned by […]
One Wholesaler to Rule Them All? Ingram Reportedly Looking at Baker & Taylor Acquisition
The Federal Trade Commission is reportedly conducting a “preliminary nonpublic investigation” about booksellers’ use of major wholesalers, Shelf Awareness reports, and telling some interview subjects that the queries are related to the possibility of Ingram acquiring Baker & Taylor. One person interviewed characterized it as a “fact finding” mission to investigate the effects of a consolidation that would leave the industry with a single major wholesaler, servicing both retail and library markets. ABA CEO Oren Teicher said, “To our knowledge, there has never been an instance in the book business when the elimination of competition–and a further concentration of decision-making in fewer hands–has […]