Despite last week’s suggestion by the New Republic that the termination of Hachette Book Group’s mass market license for To Kill a Mockingbird was a confusing “first action” of Harper Lee’s estate following her death, the process was set in motion 5 years ago and has been hidden in plain sight at least since 2013. Per the copyright law provision that allows the reversion of rights upon request for pre-1978 works after 56 years from the original issuing of the copyright, in April 2011 Lee filed a notice of termination with Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins and San Val, which publishes a school & library edition […]
Finance
Quantifying Nook’s Decline, and More
As Barnes & Noble ceo Ron Boire first announced in Thursday’s investor call, Nook UK will shut down on March 15, and customers are being are transferred to Sainsbury’s Entertainment on Demand. Nook explained the transitions to customers online. The same date is when Nook told customers they will stop selling apps (though they are having a final sale until then). The company’s stock rallied Thursday on decent earnings and the continued reduction of Nook — though it’s still below where it was until before the previous quarter’s report. And while the company’s account of the “lowest number of store closings […]
Official: Ingram to Buy Perseus Distribution Companies
As we reported on Tuesday was said to be in the works, Perseus Books Group has now followed their deal to sell the company’s publishing imprints to Hachette Book Group with a second binding agreement to sell their distribution businesses — Perseus Distribution, PGW, Consortium, Legato, Constellation and their share in the Faber Factory by Constellation joint venture — to Ingram Content Group. The deal is expected to close at the end of March, at the same time as the HBG deal (though there is no indication of an expectation that Ingram’s purchase will require regulatory approval). ICG ceo John […]
Second Time’s A Charm: Perseus Sells Publishing Lines to Hachette
The deal to sell the Perseus Book Group that fell apart at the last minute in August 2014 has returned: After an open sale process that began in September 2015, conducted by Greenhill & Co., the initial result is essentially the same. Hachette Book Group has made a “binding commitment” to purchase the Perseus publishing imprints (Basic, Public Affairs, Running Press, Avalon Travel, Seal Press, academic textbook publisher Westview Press, the Weinstein Books joint-venture and a partnership with Nation Books — comprising about 6,000 titles). “The transaction is expected to close after regulatory approval is received.” As before, the purchase […]
Mondadori Likely to Sell Three Imprints for Approval of Rizzoli Acquisition
With Italy’s Antitrust Authority due to make a recommendation shortly on Mondadori‘s acquisition of RCS Media’s Rizzoli book publishing group, Italy’s La Repubblica has reported that the government will require the sale of three publishing lines. Mondadori managing director Ernesto Mauri had already indicated in a recent television interview the expectation that the company would have to give up publishers comprising about 3 percent market share in order to get approval for the deal, indicating they would sell Bompiani and Marsilio. But La Repubblica then reported over the weekend that the final report will call for the sale of Sonzogno as well, […]
Samhain Publishing “Winding Down”
Samhain Publishing announced to authors via email on Friday that the digital publisher is “beginning the process of winding down due to our market share’s continuing decline. We’re approaching the point where we cannot sustain our business.” Christina Brashear adds, “We prefer to go out gracefully and not get to the point where our overhead compromises our ability to pay the authors’ royalties. That’s would just be wrong. We want to stay on the high road and keep your respect.” Samhain says their objective is an orderly shrinking of operations, underscoring that, “We are going to continue on with selling our […]