By the end of the work day Tuesday, the parties confirmed with a press release the deal to sell Perseus Books Group to Hachette Book Group, with HBG having “binding commitments” to purchase all of PBG and in turn sell the sizable distribution lines to Ingram Content Group. Hachette will gain approximately 6,000 titles from the Perseus imprints, and will “make Perseus…a major new publishing division of the company.” The official release is relatively scant on details, and the purchase price was not disclosed. Apparently that information will not be shared any time soon, though presumably the transaction is material […]
Finance
Perseus Imprints to be Sold to Hachette Book Group; Distribution Units to Ingram Content
The owners of the Perseus Books Group have agreed to a sale of the company, in an unusual three-way transaction, with a formal announcement expected later today following final execution of the documents. Our understanding of the deal based on people familiar with the negotiations is that Hachette Book Group is purchasing PBG, and then in turn will sell to Ingram Content Group Perseus’s extensive distribution companies — including Perseus Distribution, PGW, the recently-formed Legato, and Consortium, plus the Constellation digital distribution platform and their share in the UK joint-venture Faber Factory Powered by Constellation. What HBG retains is Perseus’s […]
German Trade Association Asks for Investigation Into Amazon
In Europe, the Germany Publishers and Booksellers Association (the Borsenverein) announced today that it filed a 22-page complaint last week against Amazon with the Federal Cartel Office, asking for an investigation into the etailers’ negotiations with book publishers and accusing the company of violating antitrust laws. They are protesting Amazon’s intentional “business interruption” with the books published by Bonnier in Germany, similar to what Hachette has been experiencing in the US. To be clear, the association is relying on media reports indicating Amazon is looking to increase their share of ebook proceeds to 40 percent or 50 percent. Borsenverien chief executive […]
Shareholders’ Suit Won’t Block Hastings Sale
At the end of last week, a Texas District Court judge rejected shareholders’ request for a preliminary injunction blocking the proposed buyout of Hastings by National Entertainment Collectibles. The court did not find “a substantial likelihood of success on the merits” for the plaintiffs, though this ruling does not block the shareholders’ lawsuit from going forward. It simply denies any expedited discovery, and means the suit will not prevent the merger from going forward. The court recognizes that “a judgment for money damages is a potential post-merger appraisal remedy.” Ruling
Osprey Actively Seeking A Sale, Closes Exhibit A and Strange Chemistry Imprints
The Osprey Publishing Group, as part of a financial restructuring and “strategic review” of its holdings, is moving away from publishing fiction and actively seeking a sale of its non-core components — and may consider an outright sale of the whole company. The publisher will close its Exhibit A Books mystery thriller/imprint and Strange Chemistry young adult imprint immediately, “due mainly to market saturation,” according to a statement posted online. They said that those lines have “unfortunately been unable to carve out their own niches with as much success.” No further titles will be published by Exhibit A or Strange Chemistry, […]
Charting Publishers’ Performance
People were interested enough in Lagardere Publishing’s chart of their performance since 2006 – and what it might or might not say about the effect of ebooks on publishers’ financial results — that we dug in to produce similar charts for the other largest publicly reporting publishers. (Which means everyone but Macmillan.) Complications abound, of course. Everyone reports slightly different measures of profit margin, and special transactions over the years can significantly skew the results. Our first chart is a composite that aggregates the annual results of all 5 reporting companies (Hachette; Harper; Simon & Schuster; Penguin; and Random House). Results originally […]