Two experienced UK publishing executives — Mark Smith (formerly ceo of Bonnier Zaffre, and before that Quercus) and Marcus Leaver (formerly ceo of Quarto, and before that Sterling) — have joined to form Welbeck Publishing Group. They intend to “build a new trade publishing business through the acquisition of established companies…and by incubating start-up businesses in scalable areas of the market.” In keeping with their backgrounds that have paired publishing with packaging, the announcement says “the focus will be on illustrated non-fiction and children’s books for the co-edition market as well as commercial fiction and non-fiction.” The first step, the […]
Finance
Briefs
The U.S. Copyright Office named Karyn Temple register of copyrights. Temple has been the acting registrar since 2016. Lilla Weinberger, 78, co-owner of Readers’ Books in Sonoma, CA died on March 24. She founded the store with her husband Andy Weinberger in 1991. HarperCollins Italia launched its first children’s list, beginning with 25 titles in 2019. It plans to expand the list to 100 titles a year over the next few years. Sabrina Annoni, editorial director of HarperCollins Italia said, “HarperCollins has a strong history in Children’s publishing and remains one of its global leaders—we are excited to continue this […]
Penguin Random House Acquires UK’s Little Tiger Group
Penguin Random House has acquired UK children’s publisher and packager Little Tiger Group, with the deal to close on April 1. CEO and cofounder of Little Tiger Group Monty Bhatia will report to Barbara Marcus, president and publisher of Random House Children’s, who “initiated and led the acquisition.” Little Tiger will be run as a standalone company, “aligned closely” with RH Children’s and will maintain its five imprints, led by publishers Jude Evans and Thomas Truong. Little Tiger will also “continue its business of selling its books directly to a variety of publishers and select retailers and distributors.” PRH has […]
People, Etc.: Teicher to Retire From ABA
American Booksellers Association ceo since 2009 Oren Teicher announced Monday that he will retire at the end of the year. The ABA board has retained the search firm of Isaacson, Miller and has appointed a search committee, intending to complete the search process by September 30. Teicher said, “To say the least, this was not a decision I reached lightly, as I have cherished every single day over the last 30 years that I have worked at ABA. But the time has come, and I firmly believe it’s the right decision for me, and for ABA. There are also a number […]
F+W Seeks Bankruptcy Protection While Selling Off Their Businesses
After many rounds of restructuring and refinancing, on Sunday F+W Media filed papers in a Delaware Bankruptcy Court, seeking protection while they sell off all their businesses “to maximize the value of their estates for the benefit of all their stakeholders.” The company says it was “facing near-term liquidity issues” and “determined that the only viable alternative, which would allow it to survive while providing relief from its obligations, was to pursue a sale transaction within the context of a chapter 11 filing.” They have obtained a proposed $8 million in debtor-in-possession financing from a small subset of their existing […]
Corporate, Etc.: Pearson Sells K-12 Textbook Group and More
Pearson announced the $250 million sale of its K-12 courseware division to private equity group Nexus Capital Management, a sale which the company had been pursuing for at least a year as part of its simplification strategy. Chief executive John Fallon says it “frees us up to focus on the digital first strategy that will drive our future growth.” Nexus will pay just $25 million now, with the remainder due in an unconditional $225 million vendor note “expected to be repaid in three to seven years.” Thereafter, Pearson will continue to receive 20 percent of all future cash flows to […]