Melville House is creating a UK-based operation. Zeljka Marosevic, formerly of Fourth Estate, will run Melville House UK. Dennis Johnson tells the Bookseller the unit “would at first concentrate on marketing its 60 frontlist titles, as well as selected backlist, distributed in Britain through Turnaround.” He hopes to hire an editorial director before the end of the year with the aim of “crafting a list distinct from that of the US company.” Abrams has partnered with Galison Publishing to launch a line of Wimpy Kid gift and stationery products. They will be made and marketed in coordination Galison’s Mudpuppy brand, […]
Finance
Google Said to End Print Versions of Frommer’s Guides
Former Frommers.com editor Jason Clampet reports that Google has discontinued issuing new Frommer’s travel guides in print. Starting with New York City with Kids guide that was scheduled for a February 19 publication, “the entire future list of Frommer’s titles will not see the light of day. Many of the authors attached to these 29 titles told Skift that they were informed by editors now working at Google that the books would not publish. Some authors were told that the books would merely be delayed before new contracts were signed. None of the authors contacted reported that their titles would […]
New Zealand Clears Penguin Random House Merger, Too
New Zealand’s Commerce Commission announced Tuesday that they, too, have approved the pending Penguin Random House merger, following on the approvals by the DOJ in February and Australia’s commerce commission earlier this month. In their decision, which arrived a couple of weeks in advance of their April 5 deadline, Commission chairman Mark Berry said in a statement said they “looked at the potential impact of the merger in the markets for book publishing rights, printed book distribution services provided to third party publishers and the wholesale of books” and considered that “in each of the relevant markets, the merged [Penguin […]
Corporate: Lonely Planet Sale to NC2 Confirmed; eMusic Merges with Blio
After a vague and weak denial last month when travel site Skift first reported the deal in progress, the BBC has now confirmed its sale of Lonely Planet to little-known billionaire Brad Kelley’s NC2 media. Selling for £51.5 million ($77.3 million), the sale is now raising the expected criticism in the UK as the British public confronts the full fiasco of the broadcaster’s diversion into travel publishing. The BBC already took £50 million in writedowns on the total £130 million purchase price for Lonely Planet, and the sale is an admission that even those writedowns were not sufficient to account […]
Plans Resume for IPO or Sale of Springer Science, But Bertelsmann No Longer Interested
The long, slow process of finding something to do with Springer Science continues, as the company’s private equity owner EQT restarts plans to sell or launch an IPO that they hope would value the academic publisher at as much as 4 billion euros, Bloomberg reports. EQT, according to the ever-reliable “people familiar with the matter” will “send documents to interested groups this month and potential buyers have received non-disclosure agreements.” Bertelsmann, which had expressed some interest in buying Springer last fall, now says in an email statement they won’t pursue the company after all. “For Bertelsmann, the area of business […]
Australia Approves Penguin Random House Merger
The Penguin Random House merger cleared another regulatory hurdle Friday morning as Australia’s Competition and Consumer Commission will approve the deal, the two publishing houses announced Friday. “Bertelsmann and Pearson welcome this ruling as an important step on the path towards completing the planned transaction,” the companies said in a joint statement, adding they “are confident of receiving [the] approvals” from other international antitrust regulatory bodies “over the course of the year.” New Zealand’s Competition Commission, which was also expected to arrive at a decision by the end of this week, has postponed the date to April 5. And as […]