Ingram to Purchase Perseus’ Client Services Business

On Thursday, March 3, the Perseus Books Group and Ingram Content Group announced that they had entered into a binding agreement to sell Perseus’ client services business to Ingram. 

“We are delighted to be welcoming new colleagues from Perseus and publisher clients from Perseus distribution to Ingram Content Group,” said John Ingram, chairman and CEO of Ingram Content Group. “Perseus’ distribution companies Publishers Group West (PGW), Consortium, Perseus Distribution, and Legato have built strong businesses with solid reputations. We’re pleased about the opportunity to combine them with our own publisher services group, Ingram Publisher Services, to build an even better company for our industry.”

Perseus Books President and CEO David Steinberger said, “The commitment to independent publishers enabled our people to build the industry’s leading client services business. So we are very pleased to have found such a good long-term home for that business with Ingram, a company with a longstanding reputation for excellence.”

In addition to its four publisher services brands — Publishers Group West (PGW), Consortium Book Sales & Distribution, Perseus Distribution Services, and Legato Publishers Group — Perseus distribution serves university presses through Perseus Academic and international publishers via a joint venture with Faber Factory. It also includes Constellation, a digital asset management and distribution service.

Perseus’ distribution serves 600 independent publishers, including Grove Atlantic, New World Library, Harvard Business Review Press, Princeton University Press, Highlights Press, and City Lights Publishing.

Ingram plans to add Perseus Distribution’s Jackson, Tennessee, facility to its physical and print-on-demand logistics network.

The transaction is expected to close at the end of March.

On March 1, Perseus announced that it had signed a binding agreement to sell its publishing business to Hachette. That transaction is also expected to close at the end of March.