Publishers Lunch

People, Etc.

The new controlling owners of the Agatha Christie estate have signed with William Morris Endeavor for exclusive representation of all facets of the estate, "expanding its reach across television, film and digital media." Acorn Productions acquired the 64 percent stake in Agatha Christie Ltd that had been owned by Chorion in February 2012, calling it "the most important deal in the company’s history." The Agatha Christie family owns the remaining 36 percent. Christie's literary works include over 80 novels and short story collections and 19 plays, which they say continue to sell at a rate of over three million books per year worldwide.

Harvard Common Press is opening a small office in downtown San Francisco as a "footprint" for their expanding activity in "engaging with food startups and acting as a strategic content and investment partner" to new players from the San Francisco food and technology community. Just as "ed-tech" is a hot investment area, they see "food + tech" as an emerging space with a lot of potential. Associate publisher Adam Salome will oversee the new office--primarily a meeting space--as the company "looks to expand its presence in the food innovation arena." They were investors in the recipe search engine Yummly in 2010, which "has led us to more serious conversations, interactions and other investments with food startups." 

Their latest investment was in Caviar, which powers take-out delivery for restaurants that don't have their own delivery drivers, and are actively"talking with a number of different companies that are tackling various avenues of food + tech."