Headquartered in Paris, France, Archet Publishing Company is a comprehensive publishing company founded in 1826 and the largest publishing group in France. Publishers Weekly reported on Aug. 16 that With the support of parent company Lagardère, Ashter spent $240 million to buy Walkman Publishing. The deal is expected to close by the end of September.
Workman Publishing, acquired by Archer, is an independent new York-based commercial publisher founded in 1968 by Peter Workeman and best known for its non-fiction books. Following the acquisition, Archer CEO Michael Pierch called Walkman "a prominent and most creative publisher in the industry," especially pioneering "a new and unique way to combine image and information." He also said that because of the uniqueness of this publishing idea, Archer does not interfere too much with Walkman's own publishing content.
Upon completion of the acquisition, Walkman Publishing will become The Eighth Publishing Group under the Achelt Umbrella – seven others including algonquin. Walkman's new team will be led by current CEO Dan Reynolds, who will join Ashter's executive management board.
Part of the Hachette Book Group.
Carolan Workman, executive chairman and president of Walkman Corporation, will retire after the deal closes, and her husband is the company's founder, Peter Walkman, who has led the publisher since 2013 after her husband's death. In an exclusive interview with Publishers Weekly, CEO Reynolds said Walkman's search for a new owner has been going on for years. Reynolds believes that Walkman's new publishing genre is in dire need of a lot of money, and after completing the deal, Walkman can withdraw from the task of "investing and maintaining infrastructure" and devote himself to the development of the product.
This is a new development in the merger and acquisition trend of giants in the foreign publishing market in recent years. In November 2020, Penguin Random House, the largest book publisher in the United States, acquired Simon & Schuster. In March, Harper Collins, the second-largest commercial publisher in the United States, also acquired Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books & Media. On May 17 this year, Publishers Weekly also reported that Clarivate announced the acquisition of ProQuest, a well-known electronic academic publisher, for $5.3 billion.
Reference Links:
https://artsandculture.google.com/entity/m02vqp5y?hl=zh
https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/industry-deals/article/87155-hbg-to-acquire-workman-for-240-million.html
https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/industry-deals/article/86387-clarivate-to-buy-proquest-for-5-3-billion.html
The cover image is a still from the movie Genius 2016.
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