Corporate: Perseus Sale Postponed; Mondadori Merges Children's Imprints

The closing of the sale of the Perseus Books Group to Hachette -- with the distribution businesses to be sold in turn to Ingram Content Group -- has been postponed past the intended July 31 date. That closing date always seemed ambitious, since the complicated three-way agreement was not executed until June 24, though up until a few days the parties were proceeding on track with that closing date. Indeed, HBG indicated to us in a brief statement, "This transaction is more complex because there are three parties involved and so more time is needed."

Perseus employees were told by email on Wednesday: "As with all closings, there are a number of tasks that need to be accomplished in order to close and the parties were not able to complete these in time to close Thursday. The goal now is to close by the end of August." Sale transactions are traditionally closed at the end of a month (at a minimum) to keep the accounting straight, so even a modest delay would normally change the schedule by a full month.

In Italy, the Mondadori Group will bring together the children's imprints from both Arnoldo Mondadori Editore and Piemme to create a unified children's publishing division. They say that the new Mondadori Group Children's Book Division will have 24 percent of the market. Lorenzo Garavaldi will be managing director of the group and Enrico Racca will be editorial director, overseeing both Mondadori Ragazzi and Battello a Vapore. Alice Fornasetti reports to Racca as editor in chief of Battello a Vapore, and Patrizia Puricelli remains editor in chief of Geronimo Stilton. Laura Casonato will be the rights director for the new division, with Sandra Barbui maintaining her role as foreign rights manager for Mondadori Ragazzi.