Hachette Book Group is near a deal to buy one of the biggest
independent U.S. publishers, Perseus Books Group, beefing up its
market share even as it is enmeshed in a bitter dispute with
Amazon.com, said people familiar with the situation.
Perseus, owned by private-equity firm Perseus LLC, houses about
a dozen imprints, including Basic Books, Da Capo Press and
PublicAffairs. The imprints publish in such areas as popular
culture, science and history, with such titles as Samantha Power's
"A Problem From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide," which won
the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction. The publisher, like
its private equity owner, was founded by leveraged buyout pioneer
Frank Pearl, who died in 2012.
For Hachette, a unit of Lagardère SCA, the deal promises to
boost its nonfiction offerings. Hachette is largely known for
publishing such fiction writers as James Patterson, Michael
Connelly, and David Baldacci. It would be the second acquisition
struck by Hachette in the past year that has beefed up its
nonfiction offerings, including its purchase of most of the adult
Hyperion imprint from Walt Disney Co.
Hachette generated about 475 million euros ($646 million) in the
U.S. in 2013, according to a recent investor day presentation that
Lagardère made in Paris. Perseus produces between $90 million and
$100 million in publishing revenue, a person familiar with the
firm's finances said.
The deal is expected to include Perseus's client-services
businesses, through which Perseus distributes books for others,
although Hachette is expected to sell that business to Ingram
Content Group, a unit of Ingram Industries Inc. Perseus generates
about $300 million in distribution sales volume on behalf of more
than 350 publisher clients, of which it takes a percentage.
Word of the pending deal comes as Hachette and Amazon are
engaged in a bitter dispute over terms under which Amazon sells
Hachette e-books. Amazon, which seeks to improve its cut of e-book
prices, has blocked its customers from preordering upcoming
Hachette titles and has delayed shipments of existing titles.
On Tuesday, consumers couldn't preorder a copy of Douglas
Preston and Lincoln Child's upcoming novel, "The Lost Island,"
which Hachette's Grand Central Publishing imprint is publishing
Aug. 5. By comparison, Barnes & Noble Inc.'s website is
accepting preorders on the title, where the hardcover edition is
priced at $17.55, a 35% discount, and the digital book is priced at
$12.99.
Write to Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg at
jeffrey.trachtenberg@wsj.com
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