Hachette and Ingram in Deal for Perseus

In a deal announced on Tuesday, Hachette Book Group is buying the publishing division of Perseus Books Group and Perseus’ client-service business is heading to Ingram Content Group. The deal, which is subject to government approval, is expected to close by July 31.

Plans call for Perseus Books to become a new publishing division of Hachette that will include Perseus Books’ nine imprints, including Avalon Books, Basic Books, Da Capo Press, PublicAffairs, and Running Press, as well as Perseus’ partnerships with The Daily Beast, The Economist, The Nation Institute, and The Weinstein Company.

Ingram’s acquisition of the Perseus client service business encompasses print and digital distribution services to more than 400 publisher clients ranging from Grove Atlantic and DreamWorks Press to Harvard Business Review Press and City Lights. In addition, Ingram will take on the client publishers of Perseus’ four publisher services brands: Publishers Group West, Consortium Book Sales & Distribution, Perseus Distribution Services, and Legato Publishers Group, as well as Constellation, the Perseus digital asset management and distribution service. The Perseus distribution facility in Jackson, Tennessee, will become part of Ingram’s physical and print-on-demand logistics network.

“We’re proud and happy to welcome Perseus staff and authors to Hachette Book Group,” Michael Pietsch, the company’s CEO, said in a statement. “This exciting acquisition adds a new program of extraordinary diversity, vibrancy, and strength to HBG’s portfolio of publishers. It fits our strategic goals of growth and nonfiction expansion.”

John Ingram, Ingram Content Group’s chairman and CEO, said, “We admire and respect what PGW, Consortium, Perseus Distribution, Legato and Constellation have accomplished in the industry and look forward to collaborating to bring even greater solutions for content distribution to all of our clients.”

The New York Times noted that Hachette’s acquisition of Perseus could help its negotiations with Amazon. But Pietsch told the paper that the move was part of Hachette’s “strategic long-term plan to grow in the U.S. market,” and was not related to the standoff with Amazon.

Michael Shatzkin, chief executive of the Idea Logical Company, told the Times that the acquisition of Perseus’ strong portfolio of nonfiction and academic books gives Hachette “a more stable and diverse base. In one fell swoop this broadens them enormously.”