Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Osprey Is Sold to Bloomsbury

Publishers Lunch


The unwinding of Osprey Publishing is complete with the announcement Monday that the company has been sold to Bloomsbury for £4.6 million in cash and stock. (Of that, £3.2 million is in cash, paid to private equity owners Alcuin Capital.) Bloomsbury says the business had sales of £7 million in 2013, over half of which comes from outside of the UK -- mostly in the US -- with almost no profit. Bloomsbury was considered a leading candidate to buy Osprey, mentioned along with Hachette UK in October.

In June Osprey closed their Strange Chemistry Exhibit A imprints and the company was engaged in a "strategic review" to evaluate selling parts or all of the company. In October, they sold off Watkins, Angry Robot and Nourish to investor Etan Ilfeld.

Bloomsbury's Richard Charkin says in the announcement, "Osprey is an ideal fit for our strategy of publishing for well-defined special interest markets. We look forward to working with our new colleagues in Oxford to build on this highly successful business in USA, UK and throughout the world." Their program includes Old House and Shire, and their lists focus on military history, natural history and heritage publishing.

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