Overview

Publishing Mergers & Acquisitions

Over the past 30 years, we have become one of the leading merger, acquisition and divestiture advisors to book publishers.  

We are actively involved in advising publishing and information services clients in a wide range of merger and acquisition transactions in such areas as trade books, juvenile books, database businesses, cellular rights, newsletters, establishment of venture capital funds, and many other areas of publishing, including electronic publishing.  The more than 100 transactions successfully completed over the last 21 years range in value from under $5 million to in excess of $50 million. We have been able to even the playing field for small to mid-size publishers who might otherwise be overmatched when dealing with the resources of larger media companies. 

This special competence provides our clients with advice on how to establish or increase values and provides the buyer or seller with entree to the decision makers in publishing and information businesses domestically and abroad.  We are also able to add value to publishing transactions by bringing into play specialized tax knowledge to maximize the final benefits of a transaction and through the expertise of our intellectual property attorneys, who can give advice on rights that are an essential part of a publishing transaction.  Our strong and long-standing experience enables us to bring these transactions to fruition successfully, speedily and economically. 

Examples of some of our M&A transactions are listed below:

From To
Monacelli Press Random House
The Haworth Press Taylor & Francis Group
Hugh Lauter Levin Associates Rizzoli International Publications
Allerton Press Pleiades Publishing
Consortium Book Sales & Dist. Perseus Books Group
Oceana Publications Oxford University Press
Lawyers Weekly Dolan Media Company
Walker Publishing Company Bloomsbury Publishing
Art Now LTB Holding (USA
CDC Construction News Alta Communications
Sea Star Books of North-South Books Chronicle Books
Berkshire House Publishers W.W. Norton & Company
Greenhaven Press, Inc. and Lucent Books Gale Group, division of Thomson Corporation
Petersons Guides The Thomson Corporation
Hudson Hills Press Gallery Press
Emanuel Publishing Aspen Publishers
Summers Press Aspen Publishers
Presidio Press Random House
Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Harcourt General
American Booksellers Association, Inc. Trade Show Reed Publishing (USA)
Library Database Division of EIC/Intelligence Reed Publishing (USA)
Lectorum Publications Scholastic
Jeremy P. Tarcher Putnam Berkley Group
Shareholder sale of 50% Interest in the Haworth Press Haworth Press
Howell Book House MacMillan
Sales of Rights to Unofficial Guide Travel Series from Menasha Ridge Press MacMillan Publishing, USA.
Price Stern Sloan Putnam Berkeley Group
South Park Press, Inc. The Musterlin Group
Schocken Books Random House
AIP Press Springer Verlag New York
Sandak GK Hall, division of MacMillan Company
Alloy Digest ASM International
Baskerville Communications Informa Group
Williamson Publishing Guideposts
Ideals Publications Rowman & Littlefield
Globe Pequot Press  


Selling a business is generally a one-time event and the business often represents a major asset of individual owners. CLL offers those dealing with such a situation an opportunity to meet without any obligation. In this meeting, we review the history of the business, its financial history, the likelihood of a sale, and the tax and estate and family planning aspects of the sale. In our practice we have continued to review and advise clients over many years developing a close informed relationship that is helpful to the process.

We welcome you to call one of our lawyers, all of whom are familiar with mergers and acquisitions of Publishing and Information Services companies, to schedule a complimentary meeting and discussion.

Robert J. Giordanella rjg@cll.com (212) 790-9234
Simon Gerson sxg@cll.com (212) 790-9206
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