Hachette Reaches Deal to Buy Perseus Publishing Business

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The Perseus Books Group and Hachette Book Group announced on Tuesday that they have entered into a binding commitment to sell Perseus’s publishing business to Hachette. The transaction is expected to close after regulatory approval is received.

The sale, to be Hachette’s largest acquisition to date following its acquisition of Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers and Hyperion’s adult books list, comes after the company’s previous attempt to acquire Perseus in June 2014 fell through, the New York Times reported. Perseus had begun looking for a buyer again in September 2015. Financial terms of the new deal were not disclosed.

“We’re thrilled to welcome Perseus staff and authors to Hachette, and are confident that it will be both an excellent complement to our publishing program and a great fit for the Perseus team,” said Hachette Book Group CEO Michael Pietsch. “This acquisition is a realization of Hachette’s continuing plans to grow and to expand our nonfiction and backlist publishing programs. It is especially gratifying to have this new opportunity to join together with Perseus, after coming so close to acquiring the company 18 months ago.”

Hachette Book Group plans to make Perseus Books a major new publishing division of the company, under the continued leadership of longstanding Perseus executive Susan Weinberg, who will join HBG’s Executive Management Board as senior vice president and publisher of Perseus Books.

Perseus Books, which is owned by the private investment firm Centre Lane Partners LLC, is comprised of nine imprints, many of them focusing on nonfiction: Avalon Travel, Basic Books, Basic Civitas, Da Capo Press, Da Capo Lifelong Books, PublicAffairs, Running Press, Seal Press, and Westview Press. It also has partnerships with The Economist, The Nation Institute, Participant Media, and The Weinstein Company. Perseus publishes approximately 500 new titles per year and has a backlist of more than 6,000 books, going back 60 years.

“We take very seriously our responsibility to our people, our authors, our books, and our many clients and partners, as well as to our investors. So it is gratifying that Hachette, a company that we all admire, will be building on what we have accomplished,” said President and CEO of the Perseus Books Group David Steinberger.

Perseus is also currently in discussions to sell its client services business, which provides digital and physical marketing and distribution services to 600 independent publishers.