Penguin Random House formally completed their acquisition of Ediciones B’s imprints from Grupo Zeta (reportedly for 40 million euros), and those lines become part of Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial. (An investment group indicates that Ediciones B had sales of approximately 13 million euros in 2015.) Director-general of Ediciones B, B. Román de Vicente will report to CEO of PRH Grupo Editorial Núria Cabutí Brull. Juan Díaz will be publishing manager of Ediciones B, and will oversee the work of the team headed by literary director Berta Noy. Pilar Reyes, who is responsible for Alfaguara, Taurus and Debate, will take on […]
Finance
PubNet and PubEasy US Sold to MVB In Germany
NPD has sold the Pubnet and PubEasy ordering services, which they acquired from Nielsen as part of the Bookscan group at the end of 2016, to Germany’s MVB Marketing, a subsidiary of the German Publisher and Bookseller Association. The transfer is effective July 1, and the services will comprise a new, New York-based division, MVB US Inc. Ted Hill will serve as general manager. He has been an industry consultant through his THA Consulting. The current technology for the ordering systems is licensed until the end of 2018, after which, the announcement indicates, it will be replaced with MVB’s own platform. […]
Penguin Eliminates Blue Rider Press
Penguin Publishing Group president Madeline McIntosh has closed another of the group’s publishing lines, writing to staff that she had “made the difficult decision to discontinue Blue Rider Press as a standalone imprint.” President and publisher David Rosenthal, who came to Penguin in early 2011 to create the imprint, and associate publisher Aileen Boyle, who joined Rosenthal after a few months to help build the line, are both “leaving the company in the coming months.” Current and forthcoming Blue Rider titles will be published by Dutton, which was combined with other lines and made part of Putnam Dutton in early […]
Rodale to Explore Sale
Further to our theory that in today’s climate publishing and media companies are either buyers or sellers, privately-held Rodale indicated in a press release that the board is exploring the company’s future and may sell part or all of the enterprise. They have retained Allen & Company to advise them (though Allen’s principal job is find buyers). The release says the board has “initiated a process to explore a range of potential strategic alternatives to best position its industry-leading properties for the future. The company noted that strategic alternatives may include, but are not limited to, the sale of the […]
Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods Market
Just a day after Bloomberg reported that Amazon had expressed interest in acquiring communication tool Slack at a valuation of $9 billion or more, the etailer itself has announced a larger and more profound actual acquisition: They are buying Whole Foods Market, for cash, in a transaction valued at approximately $13.7 billion agreement, paying $42 per share. The deal is expected to close in the second half of the year. (Amazon is reported have over $21.5 billion in cash on their balance sheet as of earlier this year. There were rumors last year that the etailer was looking at buying WFM.) […]
Penguin Random House Acquires Merchandise Company, Out of Print Clothing
Penguin Random House announced Wednesday that on June 1 they acquired Out of Print Clothing, a New York-based company that produces t-shirts as well as other clothing, accessories and home goods featuring book-cover art and literary-themed designs. In the announcement, PRH declares that the acquisition signals “its intent to greatly expand its author- and imprint-brand-based merchandising capabilities.” Out of Print Clothing co-founders Todd Lawton and Jeffrey LeBlanc — one spent four years as a brand manager at Nike, the other worked at hedge fund Greenlight Capital — will report to PRH vp, publishing innovation development Alison Rich, continuing to work out of their […]