The UK’s Competition & Markets Authority has now published the full text of their decision in not challenging Penguin Random House‘s pending acquisition of Simon & Schuster. The answer is as we indicated from the start: S&S UK, with sales of only about £40 million, is just too small to make a meaningful difference. There is some nuance in how the CMA approached the decision that could interest people trying to anticipate how the Department of Justice will view the deal. The CMA writes that market share “estimates included in the parties’ internal documents for the United States” show PRH […]
M&A
ProQuest to be Sold to Clarivate for $5.3 Billion
Publicly-traded Clarivate (the awkward modern name for what was Thompson Reuters’ IP and science division, FKA as Thompson Scientific) has an agreement to acquire library content and services company ProQuest for $5.3 billion from Cambridge Information Group and its partners. Clarivate will pay with $4 billion in cash and $1.3 billion in equity. Chairman of ProQuest and CEO of Cambridge Information Group Andy Snyder, who will join the Clarivate board as vice chair after the deal closes, says in the announcement: “I have seen ProQuest evolve to meet our customers’ ever-changing needs over the last several decades and fully understand […]
Elliott Buys Paper Source Out of Bankruptcy, to be Run by BN CEO James Daunt
Elliott Investment Management announced an agreement to acquire the assets and operations of bankrupt stationery retailer Paper Source for approximately $91.5 million, with $40 million of that in cash and the rest in loans. The investor says its purchase will allow Paper Source “to emerge from Chapter 11 with the support of a well-capitalized owner committed to the development and growth of the business.” Paper Source filed for bankruptcy protection abruptly in early March, carrying over $100 million in debt (against gross sales in 2020 of $104 million). The filing was controversial as a number of suppliers complained that Paper […]
Korea’s Kakao Buys Out Radish and Tapas Media as Naver Closes Wattpad Acquisition
South Korean’s Kakao Entertainment is buying serialized fiction app Radish for $440 million and web comics platform Tapas Media for $510 million. The purchases expand on Kakao’s popular webtoons business, currently focused on Korea and Japan. Kakao was already a minority investor in both companies — reported to own about 13 percent of Radish after helping to lead their $63 million Series A financing, and with a recently-increased stake of 40 percent in Tapas. “We are planning to engage the North American market in earnest through the intellectual property (IP) business” with the two acquisitions, Kakao Entertainment CEO Jinsoo Lee […]
Harper Closes Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Acquisition
HarperCollins formally completed their acquisition of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s trade division on Monday. HMH interim president Ed Spade will report to Harper ceo Brian Murray. HMH publisher, adult trade Deb Brody will report to president and publisher of the Morrow Group Liate Stehlik, and HMH Children’s publisher Cat Onder will report to Harper Children’s president and publisher Suzanne Murphy. The company says that “all sales rep, customer support, order processing, and the like will remain the same for the time being.” Murray says in the announcement, “We are happy to welcome HMH Books & Media employees, authors, and illustrators to […]
People, Etc.
At Harper Children’s, Luana Horry and Clarissa Wong have each been promoted to senior editor and Sara Schonfeld is associate editor. Vaishali Nayak is now senior manager, marketing; Katie Dutton moves up to senior marketing associate, school & library marketing; and Shaelyn McDaniel becomes assistant manager, digital marketing. Lena Reilly is promoted to associate publicist; Caitlin Lonning to senior production editor; and Kat Keating to senior digital production editor. In new hires, Erin Hamling has joined as senior production editor (she was previously a development editor at Oxford University Press). At Penguin Random House Audio, Ellen Folan has joined as director […]