South Korean’s Kakao Entertainment is buying serialized fiction app Radish for $440 million and web comics platform Tapas Media for $510 million. The purchases expand on Kakao’s popular webtoons business, currently focused on Korea and Japan. Kakao was already a minority investor in both companies — reported to own about 13 percent of Radish after helping to lead their $63 million Series A financing, and with a recently-increased stake of 40 percent in Tapas. “We are planning to engage the North American market in earnest through the intellectual property (IP) business” with the two acquisitions, Kakao Entertainment CEO Jinsoo Lee […]
Finance
Harper Closes Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Acquisition
HarperCollins formally completed their acquisition of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s trade division on Monday. HMH interim president Ed Spade will report to Harper ceo Brian Murray. HMH publisher, adult trade Deb Brody will report to president and publisher of the Morrow Group Liate Stehlik, and HMH Children’s publisher Cat Onder will report to Harper Children’s president and publisher Suzanne Murphy. The company says that “all sales rep, customer support, order processing, and the like will remain the same for the time being.” Murray says in the announcement, “We are happy to welcome HMH Books & Media employees, authors, and illustrators to […]
People, Etc.
At Harper Children’s, Luana Horry and Clarissa Wong have each been promoted to senior editor and Sara Schonfeld is associate editor. Vaishali Nayak is now senior manager, marketing; Katie Dutton moves up to senior marketing associate, school & library marketing; and Shaelyn McDaniel becomes assistant manager, digital marketing. Lena Reilly is promoted to associate publicist; Caitlin Lonning to senior production editor; and Kat Keating to senior digital production editor. In new hires, Erin Hamling has joined as senior production editor (she was previously a development editor at Oxford University Press). At Penguin Random House Audio, Ellen Folan has joined as director […]
Lagardere Agrees to New Corporate Structure, Will Keep Group Intact For now
As previewed earlier in the week, Arnaud Lagardere and the principal shareholders in Lagardere have reached an agreement that would end the special corporate structure under which Mr. Lagardere has controlled the company, despite owning only 7 percent of the public shares. Lagardere’s holding company is “relinquishing their rights” in exchange for 10 million new shares in the public company — worth a little over 230 million euros at current prices, and doubling their current stake after the dilution — and he will serve as chief executive for the duration of his current six-year term as a board member. While […]
Lagardere Negotiating Deal with Shareholders That Could Leave Group Intact, For Now
Arnaud Lagardere and the shareholders who actually own the majority of the company he currently controls are under pressure to negotiate an agreement ahead of the company’s annual meeting on June 30. Over the weekend, French press reported progress on a new potential deal, in which Lagardere would relinquish the special commandite corporate structure that allows him to control the company even though he only owns 7 percent, in favor of normal governance and control. The “people familiar with the matter,” talking to the FT, suggest that Lagardere could receive additional regular shares in the company worth between €200 million […]
People, Etc.
At Sourcebooks, Cristina Arreola has been promoted to marketing manager for Sourcebooks Landmark; Stefani Sloma to associate marketing manager for Sourcebooks Casablanca; and Tiffany Schultz has been promoted to assistant marketing manager, retail marketing & creative services. Pearson board chair Sidney Taurel intends to step down from his positions, no later than the 2022 annual meeting. Separately, former Macmillan executive and current ceo of Guardian Media Group Annette Thomas will join the board October 1. Former longtime book publishing publicity executive Susan Richman died at home in New York City on April 19. Richman worked at houses including Scribner, Warner […]