Dorchester Publishing, plagued by financial troubles for years and having recently divested itself of its remaining editorial staff, appears to be marching towards an ignoble end after more than 40 years in business. In a twist worthy of Dorchester’s tortured road to collapse, the publisher’s owner is the one foreclosing, on a personal basis, against the company itself, and will collect the proceeds from the sale of at least some of its property–raising questions about whether any assets will remain to pay creditors. On February 28, John Backe filed a notice of foreclosure after failing to collect on an outstanding […]
Finance
Wiley Looks to Sell Professional/Trade Assets That Drive $85 Million A Year
Wiley announced Wednesday that it has retained Allen & Company to “explore the sale of a number of consumer print and digital publishing assets in its professional/trade business that no longer align with the company’s long-term strategies.” That decision comes after a “strategic review of the company’s professional/trade business portfolio.” They are looking to sell a substantial portion of their professional/trade portfolio, comprising “approximately $85 million of revenue” in the most recent fiscal year. (That’s about 20 percent of the year’s trade/professional revenue $437 million for the most recent full fiscal year.) Those assets provided a “direct contribution to profit, before shared-service […]
Russell & Volkening Is Acquired By Lippincott Massie McQuilkin
Literary agency Russell & Volkening, founded in 1940 by Diarmuid Russell and Henry Volkening and acquired in 1972 by Timothy Seldes, has found a new home after a lengthy search that began in early 2011. Lippincott Massie McQuilkin has acquired the agency and will operate it “intact” and intends to maintain the agency’s name as well. Seldes will retire and William Critzman, who has been acting president since May 2011, will step down once the acquisition is complete. Last May, three of the younger members of R&V left to form their own agency, Hannigan Salky Getzler Agency, taking their clients with […]
OverDrive Acquires Booki.sh
OverDrive acquired Australian cloud-based ebook discovery site Booki.sh (not to be confused with still-to-launch US-based ebook discovery site Bookish) for an undisclosed sum. Booki.sh founders and principals Joseph Pearson, Virginia Murdoch and Peter Haasz will join OverDrive from their existing offices in Melbourne to expand the global distributor’s publishing, library and school initiatives. OverDrive in turn will expand the Booki.sh distribution and digital bookstore platforms as well as integrate Booki.sh HTML5 and EPUB reading technologies into OverDrive library and school services. “Joseph, Virginia and the Booki.sh team have created a fresh, direct and immersive reading experience that uniquely serves the […]
No Sterling Sale for Now
After a lengthy process of soliciting offers to purchase Sterling Publishing, run by investment bank Broadwater & Associates, the targeted completion date of February 29 has come and gone, apparently with no deal in place. People familiar with the bidding process indicate that although there was at least one interested publisher until recently, that company withdrew and there are currently no offers on the table. Sources familiar with the offering cited a number of factors as potential complications to a sale, including a decline in Sterling’s sales through parent company Barnes & Noble’s stores, the separate negotiation of Barnes & […]
Controlling Share In Agatha Christie Estate Sold to Acorn Media
As part of the unwinding of Britain’s Chorion, Washington, DC-based Acorn Media Group has purchased Chorion’s 64 percent interest in Agatha Christie Limited, calling it “the most important deal in the company’s history.” The Christie estate includes over 80 novels and stories, 19 plays, almost 40 TV movies, “and many more TV and feature films in development.” Acorn is “the leading distributor of British TV on home video in the US.” Chorion bought their rights to the Christie Estate in 1998 for 10 million pounds. The Christie family retains its 36 percent holding and Mathew Prichard, Agatha Christie’s grandson, remains […]