Catching up from the storm, the Authors Guild posted a member alert on Monday saying that the proposed Penguin Random House merger “merits close scrutiny from antitrust officials at the Justice Department or the FTC.” As Sarah Weinman reported last week, the Authors Guild filed an objection with the FTC over Bertelsmann’s last big purchase, of Random House itself, in 1998, ultimately to no avail. The Guild says the merged companies’ “share of the U.S. trade book market for fiction and narrative non-fiction likely exceeds 35%. Their share in certain submarkets is no doubt even higher.” Authors Guild president Scott […]
Finance
Random House to Take Complete Ownership of Random House Mondadori
Another piece of speculation from when the Penguin Random House merger was coming together has also been confirmed: Random House will purchase Mondadori’s fifty percent share in their Spanish and Latin American book publishing joint venture, Random House Mondadori. Random House is paying 54.5 million euros ($70.01 million), Reuters reports, and Mondadori is booking a capital gain of just 2.5 million euros on the transaction. Like the larger Penguin merger, the Mondadori buyout is subject to approval by Spanish antitrust authorities, and “is expected to close before year-end.” We were told by a company spokesperson the buyout was “long in […]
Wiley Buys Another Digital Learning Platform for $24 Million
Continuing their investment in digital platforms and professional development, Wiley announced another acquisition Monday: they will purchase Efficient Learning Systems for $24 million. An e-learning system provider in areas like professional finance and accounting, the company has sales of approximately $7 million. SVP of professional development Mark Allin says in the press release, “This acquisition makes Wiley a leader in the growing CPA test preparation market and provides us with a scalable platform that can be leveraged across other areas of our professional segment.”
A Look Back At Bertelsmann’s Last Big Merger
Once Hurricane Sandy stops being the foremost story no doubt trade publishing will return to speculation about the pending deal to create Penguin Random House. With government approval required in multiple territories (and particularly complex negotiations in places where Penguin faces litigation or investigation related to the adoption of the agency model), we thought it might be instructive to revisit the last major trade publishing merger. It was March 1998 when Bertelsmann announced their $1.4 billion deal to acquire Random House and merge it with their trade division, Bantam Doubleday Dell. News of that deal also came as a surprise […]
Financial: D&M Owes More than $6 Million; Quarto Counts Votes In Opposition to Dissidents; and More
The Vancouver Sun obtained bankruptcy documents for publisher D&M, showing the company owes 143 creditors more than $6 million. The largest amount, $3.8 million, is owed to a bank and a printer. Holtzbrinck Publishing Services is owed $354,000, and a number of authors are also among the company’s listed creditors. Quarto has sent out proxy documents to shareholders in advance of the November 7 meeting and vote called by dissident shareholders managed by Harwood Capital. The company’s board says that shares controlled by directors as well as two shareholders (including retired board member and co-founder Robert Morley) provide 31.1 percent […]
Further Sizing Up of Penguin Random House
From comments to the Guardian by Penguin ceo John Makinson and other reading between the lines, it’s clear that the Penguin Random House deal began on the Pearson side of the fence. Makinson made clear to the paper, “It has been a very thorough process. The board of Pearson examined [every option] exhaustively. There was a great deal of analysis of all options available to Penguin. We looked at selling, merging, buying, running it differently within Pearson. We concluded this was the best option for Pearson’s shareholders and the publishing industry.” (That may also be why the reaction to News […]