Perseus Adds Consortium The NYT covers Perseus Book Group’s purchase of Consortium Book Sales and Distribution, officially confirmed in this morning’s public release. Perseus CEO David Steinberger says the acquisition “reflects our mission to serve independent book publishers whether those publishers are owned by Perseus, joint ventures or owned by third parties.” Consortium CEO Don Linn will remain with the company, which Perseus says “will operate as an independent business.” Now with over 100 client publishers, Consortium has grown considerably since Linn purchased the company in 2002 (famously inspired by Po Bronson, who interviewed Linn for WHAT SHOULD I DO […]

Penguin Hits their Modest Targets Pearson turned in a good first half of fiscal 2006, lifted largely by its big education unit, and Penguin Group delivered the small underlying sales growth and improved profits exactly as projected six months ago. Penguin’s pattern has been to congratulate itself heartily when sales grow one to two percent, and their 387 million pounds for this reporting period provides just that — “underlying growth” of two percent compared to a year ago. Total sales grew more, up from 353 million pounds last year, due to the transfer of the Brady Games video game imprint […]

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Hachette’s Quarter, Patterson’s Rights, Audible’s Results Lagardere presented their first quarterly results incorporating the acquisition of the former Time Warner Book Group, which contributed 98 million euros ($125 million dollars) for the fiscal second quarter. Total sales this period for the Hachette Livre group overall were 495 million euros, compared to 393 million euros a year ago — up about 4 million euros beyond TWBG. Though slight, that’s an improvement over the first quarter decline in the book division. By the company’s currency-adjusted calculations, they are up 2 percent for the first six month on a like-for-like basis. In straight […]

Amazon’s First Option Amazon has optioned screen rights to Keith Donohue’s THE STOLEN CHILD, Variety reports, and “will move to secure a filmmaker and then a studio partner to turn the fantasy into a live-action feature.” Director of merchandising Laura Porco says: “We are always trying to innovate, based on listening to customers and the things they’re passionate about. This was a book we passed around to our editorial and merchandising teams. Everybody was excited by Keith’s voice and felt this could be a great movie.” Agent Joe Regal comments: “This is all a gamble, but if you’re going to […]

Changing of the Guard at CDS CDS president and co-founder Steve Black is leaving the company “to pursue other interests” following an agreed upon year-long transition, the last of the original team of long-term distribution executives associated with the company. Perseus has hired Sabrina Bracco to rejoin the company next month from Bear Stearns and run the distribution unit, with the title of vp, client services, reporting to Perseus CEO David Steinberger. Bracco worked for Perseus in a variety of roles before going to Bear Stearns, including serving as director of sales operations. CDS Books publisher Roger Cooper now reports […]