Vivendi has built a 9.9 percent stake in education and media publisher Grupo Prisa, which owns El Pais newspaper as well as Santillana, a major educational publisher, particularly in South America. Prisa sold the Santillana trade business to Penguin Random House in 2014 and though lightly reported, last October they agreed to sell Santillana’s K-12…
Finance
South Korea’s Naver to Acquire Wattpad for More Than $600 Million
Further to recent reports that storytelling website Wattpad had put itself up for sale, on Tuesday publicly-held Korean internet conglomerate Naver said it would acquire Wattpad for cash and stock valuing the company at over $600 million. (The mix of cash versus stock is not being disclosed at this time.) Korea’s largest search engine, Naver’s…
eBook Player Glose Is Acquired by Medium
In its ever-ambitious search for a business model and clear expression of why it exists at all, website Medium has acquired Paris-based Glose — an ebook platform and store, perhaps best known in the trade as the ebook vendor HarperCollins switched to for selling their ebooks directly to customers, after BookShout went of out of…
People, Etc.
Kate Dresser has joined Putnam as senior editor. She was previously at Gallery Books. At Holt, James Melia has been promoted to executive editor; Ruby Rose Lee is associate editor; Catryn Silbersack moves up to publicist; Sarah Fitts is associate publicist; and Nicolette Seeback is now associate art director. Riva Hocherman becomes associate publisher of…
Wattpad Said to be Looking for A Big Sale
After receiving unsolicited interest from a US internet company last fall, Wattpad is reported to have invited bids for the company. The company is “now in active talks with multiple interested parties and could sign a deal as early as this month,” the Globe and Mail reports. By their account they are “in talks with…
Acquisitions: A Big Buy for Wiley, and More Titles for Chicago Review Press
Wiley announced the acquisition of open-access publisher Hindawi Limited, “one of the world’s fastest growing scientific research publishers,” for a total purchase price of $298 million. “The acquisition of Hindawi enables Wiley to move farther and faster toward our goal of meeting the world’s urgent and escalating need for new knowledge,” said Wiley ceo Brian…