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Hachette Deal Closes The sale of the Time Warner Book Group closed on Friday as planned. The US branch is now officially the Hachette Book Group USA, and the UK operation is now the Little, Brown Book Group. The company notes “further details with regard to logos and any changes to publishing imprint names will be given by the companies themselves in due course.” Ford to Leave LB Publisher of Little, Brown’s children’s division David Ford has resigned as of mid-May, “to follow his dream of returning to London.” Associate Publisher and editor-in-chief Megan Tingley — who started her publishing […]

Monday, April 3 Our Usual Reminder If for some reason this has reached you even though you are not a paying member of PublishersMarketplace, please visit the link below to join us all the time for complete deal reports and more. Click to register http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/register.shtml Deal Reports Just e-mail to deals@PublishersMarketplace if you aren’t using the online form linked below. Report a deal using the online form The Key As usual, the handy key to our Lunch deal categories. While all reports are always welcome, those that include a category will generally receive a higher listing when it comes time […]

UK Fallout: How Much Less Is Ottakar’s Worth Now? How much market value has been shaved from Ottakar’s since Waterstone’s first outbid management in their proposed takeover? Analysts are expecting a new bid from HMV to be worth anywhere from 15 percent to 30 percent less than the original proposal. Ottakar’s shares currently trade at about 350 pence per share, versus HMV’s previous bid of 440 pence per share. Times Reporters Sue Agent Over Deal for Book on Dirty Cops Newsday reporter Rocco Parascandola and former newspaper colleague Sean Gardiner have sued agent Frank Weimann at The Literary Group over […]

Scribner Drops Davies Book The NY Daily News quotes Scribner’s Suzanne Balaban as saying “we’ve dropped” UK journalist Emily Davies’ fashion memoir, HOW TO WEAR BLACK: Adventures on Fashion’s Front Line. WWD had accused the lengthy book proposal of plagiarism. Scribner bought the book in a major deal late last year. NYDN UK Merger Scene — Congratulations, Everyone Lost Now that UK publishers and authors have held up the proposed Waterstone’s-Ottakar’s merger long enough to weaken the market performance and share value of two of their most important retail partners, it looks as if the Competition Commission is coming to […]

It’s a quiet day and spring break is almost over. Briefly:   — New Zealand’s Margaret Mahy has won the Hans Christian Andersen Award, awarded biennially for making a major contribution to children’s literature.   — BEA has announced the editors on this year’s Buzz Panel (you know, the one where editors are supposed to shine a light on “important hidden titles of literary merit, or breakout potential, which might otherwise go unnoticed” but instead tell you about their galley giveaways or big fall books). This year features Bill Thomas from Doubleday, Eric Chinski from FSG, Jonathan Burnham from Harper, […]

Ottakar’s Confirms Bad Year, and Worse Start to New Year Bad news continues among UK chain booksellers, as Ottakar’s reported a loss of 4.6 million pounds, on slightly increased sales of 176.5 million pounds for fiscal 2005. The company blamed “unprecedented price competition,” “the slowdown in second half sales,” and “the distraction” of an attempted management buyout that in turn led to the stalled takeover by Waterstone’s. (“Exceptional costs” related to the bids drained 5.5 million pounds from the company.) It doesn’t help that same-store sales fell 2.8 percent. Though the results would indicate that the company’s model of a […]