Penguin Random House will add to its sprawling Spanish-language publishing program with a deal to acquire Ediciones B in Barcelona from Grupo Zeta. The company says the acquisition “will reinforce PRHGE’s cultural preeminence and market share in Spain, Latin America, and across the entire Spanish-speaking world.” Ediciones B’s imprints also operate in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Uruguay, and Venezuela. The newly expanded PRH Grupo Editorial expects to publish 2,000 titles a year, and general manager of Ediciones B Román de Vicente will work in “support of” Núria Cabutí Brull, who will continue as PRH Grupo Editorial’s ceo. Spain’s El Confidencial says that PRH paid 40 million euros, while […]
International News
International: Quarto Sells Hong Kong Services, Storytel Expands, and More
Following the sale of their ANZ Books & Gifts Direct business earlier this year, Quarto is continuing to slim the non-publishing part of their portfolio. They will sell their 75 percent stake in Hong Kong-based Regent Printing Services to 1010 Printing Group for $7 million (which includes $2.5 million for Quarto’s share of the excess cash in the business). CEO Marcus Leaver says in the announcement, “We believe Quarto has a unique opportunity in our fragmented industry to become the dominant publisher of illustrated books globally. The sale of Regent will allow Quarto to focus fully on what it does best – to […]
International: Obamas’ French Publisher, New Harlequin Line, and Awards
Hachette Livre’s Fayard became the first publisher outside of the Penguin Random House family to announce that it has licensed rights, in France, to the forthcoming books by former president Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama. They also publish Hillary Clinton in French. Harlequin announced the launch of Harlequin Dare, a romance series “featuring strong, independent women” in “highly explicit encounters,” which will start publishing in January 2018. Harlequin is acquiring for line from their offices in London, New York and Toronto and will publish four titles a month — in both print and ebook form in the UK and Australia, and […]
People, Etc.: Obamas Around the World
At Scribe in the UK: Molly Slight has been promoted to editorial and publicity manager, while Adam Howard moves up to publicist. Sophie Leeds has been promoted to digital marketing coordinator, and Sarah Braybrooke becomes managing director. Matt Klise has been promoted to assistant editor at Penguin Books. Laura Van der Veer has joined Amazon Publishing’s Little A as editor. Previously, she was associate editor at Spiegel & Grau. Hannah Wood has left Harper and is relocating to San Francisco to work as a freelance editor. Robert James Waller, 77, bestselling author of The Bridges of Madison County, died on March 10, at home […]
London Announcements from Storytel, Faber, and More
Sweden’s acquisitive Storytel purchased People’s Press in Denmark, which publishes about 100 titles a year, as of March 1. They paid approximately $10.7 million. People’s Press had 2016 sales of about $14.5 million, and has a backlist of approximately 1,200 titles. Storytel acquired audiobook publisher Kontentan earlier this year, following last year’s purchases of Norstedts and Mobifo. The publisher now operates in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands and Poland, and their digital service has approximately 340,000 paid subscribers. They will combine their Copenhagen office with People’s Press. Announced now but underway for some time, Georgina Capel Associates has paired with former ITV executive […]
Legal: European Court Disallows Lower Tax for eBooks, Harper Responds In Canada
Responding to a query brought by the Polish Constitutional Court, the European Court of Justice has ruled that member states may not apply a lower value added tax to downloadable ebooks or other publications — even though lower taxes are allowed for books and other publications that are printed (and in turn, even digital books delivered by a physical medium, such as CD-ROM). The Court found that “to accept that the Member States are able to apply a reduced rate of VAT to the supply of digital books electronically, as is permitted for the supply of such books on all physical means of […]