ICM has hired Nick Harris from Mosaic (which he joined last November) as co-head of their book-to-film department, alongside the newly-promoted Josie Freedman, who has been at ICM since 2001. Harris was a partner at Rabineau Wachter Sanford Harris, and prior to that worked at AP Watt. Borders has named Scott Henry as their new evp, chief financial officer, effective today, filling the post vacated by Mark Bierley in August. Henry, 45, has been president of business and financial consulting services firm S.D. Henry Strategic Services, after five years as cfo of Las Vegas Sands Corp. Barnes & Noble has […]
OverDrive Takes Outside Investment
Private equity firm Insight Venture Partners has made “a major investment” in digital content distributor OverDrive, which the company will use to “provide additional resources” and “help fuel growth.” Insight managing director Larry Handen says in the announcement, “We are particularly excited about OverDrive’s strong growth, market leadership, and commitment to customers. Our investment coincides with the 20th consecutive quarter of continuous profitability. This is a tribute to the company’s management team.” With a capital base of $3 billion, Insight focuses on software, Internet and data services companies. OverDrive founder and CEO Steve Potash adds, “The combination of Insight’s focus […]
Lunch Weekly for Monday, October 18
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 to put them all together. “nice deal” $1 – $49,000 “very nice deal” $50,000 – $99,000 “good deal” $100,000 – $250,000 “significant deal” $251,000 – $499,000 “major deal” $500,000 and up FICTION Debut Author of the story collection KNOCKEMSTIFF and recipient of the PEN/Bingham […]
Borders Dips Toe in eBook Self-Publishing By Pairing with Start-Up BookBrewer
Borders has come up with a modest answer to Barnes & Noble’s new PubIt and Amazon’s established DTP program, announcing “Borders – Get Published” in association with start-up BookBrewer.com. The emphasis of the service is turning blogs into salable ebooks quickly and easily, though they charge a set-up fee and take 25 percent of the proceeds. (In this respect the service looks similar to plethora of sites that let you turn RSS feeds into mobile phone apps.) But they say it works for regular manuscripts as well. BookBrewer’s site says that, if you use the service independently, they can put […]
Bloomsbury Says Business Is “Resilient”; Book Sales Down 3 Percent at WH Smith
In a third-quarter trading statement, Bloomsbury says their “trading in the UK remains resilient.” They continue to expect the release of the new Harry Potter movie in November to boost book sales. The company writes: “Overall, business is performing well for the group. The outcome for the year is still dependent on the level of consumer and business to business demand between now and the end of the financial year. Major database projects are under consideration which forms part of new business in 2010.” Release Also in the UK, yesterday WH Smith reported preliminary results for the fiscal year. Same-store […]
People, Awards, Etc.
Timothy Bartlett will return to Basic Books (where he worked from 1998 to 2000) on November 8 as senior executive editor, overseeing their lists in politics, economics, and current affairs. He’s currently senior editor at Random House. NataÅ¡a LekiÄ has been promoted to managing editor at Atlas & Co. At Harper UK Children’s, Helen Mackenzie Smith has been hired as publishing director: picture books and color. She has worked for Random UK Children’s for over 14 years. Pulitzer-winning author Dr. Edward O. Wilson and “conservationist” (and actor) Harrison Ford are working with PEN to create the PEN/E.O. Wilson Award for […]