Recent start-up Catapult announced an agreement to acquire and merge with Counterpoint Press, which comprises the Counterpoint and Soft Skull imprints. Jack Shoemaker and Dan Smetanka will continue to run editorial for the acquired lines and Megan Fishmann will remain in place as director of marketing and publicity, with Catapult’s publisher Andy Hunter taking over as Counterpoint’s publisher. The sale caps the long career of Counterpoint ceo Charlie Winton, who will retire from daily operations while serving as an editor at large. Soft Skull Press will return to New York, led editorially by Yuka Igarashi. Susan Reich and David Lamb of Book Advisors represented Counterpoint in the deal. […]
Finance
Wiley to Acquire Atypon For $120 Million
John Wiley announced Thursday afternoon an agreement to pay $120 million in cash to acquire Santa Clara, CA-based publishing-software company Atypon. Through their Literatum platform for journal delivery, Atypon serves the STM and scholarly markets with software that “gives publishers direct control over how their content is displayed, promoted and monetized on the web.” Privately-held Atypon is reported to have had sales of over $31 million in 2015. Wiley will run Atypon as a separate business unit, promising that “the data and plans from each of Atypon’s clients will remain sequestered and behind firewalls.” Atypon founder and ceo Georgios Papadopoulos will continue to lead the business, reporting to Wiley ceo […]
PRH Will Consolidate Penguin Employees In Broadway Building in Early 2019
Penguin Random House ceo Markus Dohle announced to staff in a letter that Penguin employees currently working at 375 Hudson Street and 345 Hudson Street will move uptown in early 2019 as the company takes over “essentially” the entire office space at 1745 Broadway. (The building has a residential component comprising the upper floors, in addition to the 25-story office condo.) Aside from the operational efficiencies and collegiality, Dohle says the company will save “approximately $20 million annually” in expenses after consolidating. Acknowledging having told employees previously “that there were no plans in the works” to consolidate the two groups, Dohle writes […]
Quarto Acquires becker&meyer
In advance of its half-year results releasing tomorrow, Quarto announced that it has acquired Bellevue, WA-based publisher becker&meyer! from the McEvoy Group for an initial $9.8 million. The acquisition price may also increase due to a working capital adjustment payment capped at $1m and further deferred contingent consideration of up to $1.25 million, dependent on the performance of becker& meyer’s SmartLabs toy division business in 2018 and 2019. Quarto stated that the acquisition will increase its children’s publishing revenues by more than 30 percent and will bump up Quarto’s US revenue to 45 percent of the company’s overall sales. becker&mayer reported […]
Briefs: Pocket Constitution Sales Rise After Khan Speech; A Local Line for S&S India; and More
Khizr Khan’s speech at the Democratic National Convention has boosted distribution of the US Constitution. A $1 Pocket Constitution published by The National Center for Constitutional Studies — similar to the one Khan displayed during his speech, but not the same edition — moved 45,000 copies on Amazon between Saturday morning and Monday night, spokesperson Dan Sheridan told the WSJ. After announcing they would give free copies of their pocket Constitution until Election Day, the American Civil Liberties Union says it has received approximately 80,000 orders. Little Brown celebrated the recent launch of James Patterson’s BookShots with a press release declaring he “has ignited a […]
Briefs: Cooke International Bought Out By Its Agents; Hachette Titles on Tapas App
In Canada, Suzanne Brandreth and Ron Eckel are now full owners of The Cooke Agency International, the foreign rights branch of The Cooke Agency, after both being responsible for its day-to-day operations for the past three years. Dean Cooke and Sally Harding will remain owners of the originating agency, and will continue to personally represent their extensive list of authors. Brandreth and Eckel will continue to represent their own authors through The Cooke Agency as well as all their clients at Cooke International. Tapas Media, a mobile app offering bite-size content from books and comics, has partnered with Hachette Book […]