Friday, May 09, 2014

Acquisitions: McEvoy Buys Personalized Publisher, Kobo Adds More Sony Readers, Oyster Expands

Publishers Lunch

The McEvoy Group has acquired Minneapolis­–based personalized gifts and books publisher I See Me! from founders Maia and Allan Haag for an undisclosed sum. Owner of properties including Chronicle Books, McEvoy plans to use the acquisition to build upon Chronicle's personalized books and gift line. "We're excited to welcome I See Me! to our family of companies," said The McEvoy Group founder and ceo Nion McEvoy in the announcement. "We believe that together with Chronicle Books' growing personalized publishing program, MyChronicleBooks, we will provide the best and most innovative personalized publishing and gifts in the market." The 14-year-old company will remain headquartered in Minneapolis.

In February Sony announced that they were turning over their North American Reader Store customers to Kobo, and on Thursday Kobo announced that they will now take on the Sony Reader Store customers in the UK, Germany, Austria and Australia as well. Sony's stores will close on June 16, and "customers and their current eBook libraries will transfer to the Kobo ecosystem soon after the closure."


eBook subscription service Oyster announced that they have expanded their relationship with HarperCollins to add 10,000 titles from the publisher. Still available only on iOS for now (with an Android version promised for later in the year), Oyster says it now has over 500,000 titles available for subscribers.

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