Dorling Kindersley has agreed to sell travel publisher Rough Guides to APA Publications, which publishes Insight Guides and Berlitz. Terms were not disclosed. Reported in a statement from Penguin Random House in the UK, the Bookseller reports the company says DK will begin consultation with the 30 staff members who still work on Rough Guides. DK ceo Ian Hudson said the sale was made after a “wide-ranging travel publishing review,” adding that, “we believe that the future success of Rough Guides will be best secured with APA Publications.” Rough Guides was reorganized, and slimmed down, at least twice in recent years, first […]
International News
France’s La Martiniere and Media-Participations In Merger Talks
French book publisher La Martiniere Group (which also owns Abrams in the US) and French media company Media-Participations (which specializes in comics and graphic novels, but also publishes magazines, has a film/tv production arm, and a digital media group focused on videogames) announced Thursday that they are in merger discussions. Both companies are privately owned. Herve de La Martiniere said in a statement, “We are considering our options for a closer connection between our two groups, in the form of an exchange of shares. I need to think about the future of the house I founded 25 years ago.” He added, “Getting […]
Corporate: Carolina Wren Buys Blair; Laurence King Acquires BIS; and More
Carolina Wren Press is acquiring the titles of John F. Blair, Publisher, and will relaunch the combined list in January publishing under the name Blair, distributed by Consortium. (John Blair has been winding down its own distribution arm this summer.) The Durham, NC-based nonprofit will officially change its name to Blair after the acquisition is completed. In Europe, Laurence King Publishing has acquired Dutch design publisher BIS, which will continue to be overseen by managing director Bionda Dias. LKP has also created a new German subsidiary, Laurence King Verlag, which will publish 30 titles a year from their list in German, as well […]
Canongate Acquires Severn House, and More
Canongate announced that it has purchased Severn House, for an undisclosed sum from Edwin Buckhalter and his family. Buckhalter, who founded the publisher in 1974, and Mandy Shaw will serve as consultants going forward. Kate Lyall Grant remains as publisher and the staff will relocate to Canongate’s west London offices. The deal was financed in part by Canongate’s bankers, Handelsbanken. Severn House had sales of £3.26 million in 2016. Additionally, Canongate’s finance and operations director Kate Gibb has been promoted to chief operating officer, and will sit on the Severn House board along with ceo Jamie Byng and chair David Young. Byng says in the announcement, […]
Corporate: Pearson Sells Training/Test Prep Division to Chinese Company, and More
As planned, Pearson has sold their Global Education business — which provides English language training and test preparation for Chinese students preparing to study abroad — to privately-owned Chinese company Puxin Education. Pearson says the sale is expected to generate proceeds “in the region of $80 million.” The business has sales of £78 million and an adjusted operating loss of £4 million, and the transaction will take approximately 1,900 employees out of Pearson’s payroll. The company says the sale is part of their “strategic shift away from large-scale direct delivery services to focus on more scalable online, virtual, and blended services.” Pearson […]
Finance: BN Education Sinks, More From Bertelsmann
The stock of Barnes & Noble Education was hit hard after their fourth quarter earnings report on Wednesday morning, falling over 20 percent to a new all-time low at the end of trading on Thursday, below $8 a share — and still falling further in the first hour on Friday. (The stock was spun-off at around $13.50 a share two years ago, in August 2015.) The unit’s market capitalization has fallen almost in half, starting at just under $650 million when it was split from Barnes & Noble, Inc. and now at under $330 million. (BN’s market cap has rebounded […]