France’s second-largest publisher Editis — bought by Vivendia from Planeta earlier this year — is in exclusive negotiations to acquire L’Archipel. (Generally speaking, these exclusive negotiations lead to a formal acquisition, and the parties speak about it as a done deal in their press release.) L’Archipel will remain under the direction of founder and president Jean-Daniel Belfond, who would report to Editis ceo Pierre Conte. Created in 1991, L’Archipel has a backlist of over 2,500 titles. In the machine-translated release, Belfond says, “The support of Editis, with a preserved autonomy, will allow us to devote ourselves fully to what drives […]
M&A
PRH Pays Modestly for F+W Books
Paperwork filed with the bankruptcy court overseeing the sale of F+W Media’s assets shows that Penguin Random House won the F+W Books list with a modest bid. They are paying $3 million at closing, with subsequent payments due equal to 70 percent of recent accounts receivable, plus 15 percent of the value of the printed inventory. PRH also assumes a limited set of liabilities and obligations to the assigned contracts, but only for on or after the closing of the deal. (That suggests that items like unpaid author royalties earned prior to the sale remain at the back of the […]
Sourcebooks Sells Minority Share to Penguin Random House
Sourcebooks has sold a 45-percent stake in the company to Penguin Random House, which will serve as “a collaborative investor” in the company. Sourcebooks founder and ceo Dominique Raccah will work directly with PRH US ceo Madeline McIntosh on the collaboration, with McIntosh and PRH’s Nina von Moltke to fill two of the five seats on a newly-created Sourcebooks board of directors. (Raccah, her husband Ray Bennett, and Sourcebooks svp Barbara Briel hold the other seats.) For now there will be “no changes in [Sourcebooks’] leadership, management, publishing autonomy, or entrepreneurial culture,” the joint announcement says, but the two companies […]
Wiley to Buy Knewton
Just days after the Cengage and McGraw-Hill merger announcement, Wiley announced a deal to buy the assets of ed-tech firm Knewton, in a transaction expected to close by the end of the month. The price was not disclosed — though Knewton was reportedly being offered at a “fire sale” price, with EdSurge saying, “There were other buyers bidding for Knewton’s assets, with the transaction prices discussed in the $10 million range.” One of the first big ed-tech companies, New York-based Knewton had raised over $180 in funding. “No industry analyst we spoke with believes the sale price was anywhere near […]
Acquisitions: PRH Buys Salamandra, Scholastic’s Film Investment, and More
Already the world’s largest Spanish-language publisher, Penguin Random House continues to build on that position with another acquisition, agreeing to acquire Barcelona-based Ediciones Salamandra from Sigrid Kraus and Pedro del Carril. The company has over 500 authors on their list. Kraus will remain as publishing manager, “working closely” with PRH Grupo Editorial ceo Núria Cabutí. PRH ceo Markus Dohle underscores in the announcement, “Penguin Random House strongly believes in the global growth potential of the Spanish-language market, and we very much look forward to bringing Ediciones Salamandra’s authors to an even wider readership.” Pedro del Carril adds: “Of all the […]
McGraw-Hill Education and Cengage Plan to Merge
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 […]