As the educational publishing market continues to contract, two of the biggest players — McGraw-Hill Education and Cengage Learning — announced plans today for an all-stock cashless merger that would create the second largest provider of textbooks and higher education learning materials in the United States. With the deal expected to close “by early 2020,” it would create a company with $3.16 billion in annual sales — and more than $4.5 billion in long-term debt. (The leader, a shrinking Pearson, had total sales of £4.13 billion in 2018, or about $5.5 billion. Their North American sales were £2.78 billion, or […]
M&A
People, Etc.
Joe Davidson is joining Black Dog & Leventhal as editor, starting April 8. Previously he was an editor at Rizzoli. Acquisitions Charleston, SC-based Arcadia Publishing has an agreement to acquire “the significant majority of [the] assets” of New Orleans-based Pelican Publishing, which has a list of over 2,000 titles. The transaction will close in May. Arcadia ceo David Steinberger says in the announcement, “It is a publisher that fits well with Arcadia’s mission, which is to connect people with their past, with their communities and with one another.” Pelican president and publisher Kathleen Calhoun Nettleton, whose family has owned the […]
People, Etc.
Scholastic Trade announced a number of promotions and new hires. Dan Moser has been promoted to director of field sales & special markets; Jarad Waxman to director of library sales, direct & wholesale; Rachel Matson to assistant editor, Cartwheel & Orchard Books; and Jeremy West to coordinator, global licensing, media & brands. In new hires, Hannah Frank has joined Scholastic as assistant manager, social media. She was previously at Penguin Children’s. Meghan Templehof has joined as designer for Klutz. She was previously a freelance designer at Big Duck and Mudpuppy. Abha Dasgupta has joined as designer for Klutz. Previously, she […]
Leaver and Smith Form New Publisher, Acquire Carlton Books to Start
Two experienced UK publishing executives — Mark Smith (formerly ceo of Bonnier Zaffre, and before that Quercus) and Marcus Leaver (formerly ceo of Quarto, and before that Sterling) — have joined to form Welbeck Publishing Group. They intend to “build a new trade publishing business through the acquisition of established companies…and by incubating start-up businesses in scalable areas of the market.” In keeping with their backgrounds that have paired publishing with packaging, the announcement says “the focus will be on illustrated non-fiction and children’s books for the co-edition market as well as commercial fiction and non-fiction.” The first step, the […]
Briefs
The U.S. Copyright Office named Karyn Temple register of copyrights. Temple has been the acting registrar since 2016. Lilla Weinberger, 78, co-owner of Readers’ Books in Sonoma, CA died on March 24. She founded the store with her husband Andy Weinberger in 1991. HarperCollins Italia launched its first children’s list, beginning with 25 titles in 2019. It plans to expand the list to 100 titles a year over the next few years. Sabrina Annoni, editorial director of HarperCollins Italia said, “HarperCollins has a strong history in Children’s publishing and remains one of its global leaders—we are excited to continue this […]
Penguin Random House Acquires UK’s Little Tiger Group
Penguin Random House has acquired UK children’s publisher and packager Little Tiger Group, with the deal to close on April 1. CEO and cofounder of Little Tiger Group Monty Bhatia will report to Barbara Marcus, president and publisher of Random House Children’s, who “initiated and led the acquisition.” Little Tiger will be run as a standalone company, “aligned closely” with RH Children’s and will maintain its five imprints, led by publishers Jude Evans and Thomas Truong. Little Tiger will also “continue its business of selling its books directly to a variety of publishers and select retailers and distributors.” PRH has […]