More Consolidation in the UK

The Bookseller reports that independent publisher Piatkus Books has been bought by Hachette Livre’s Little, Brown:

Founder Judy Piatkus will continue as m.d. until the end of the year, when she will retire from publishing. Piatkus, which has a turnover of around £10m, will become an independent imprint within Little, Brown. It will continue trading at its current premises until the end of October, after which the team will move to Little, Brown’s new offices at 100 Victoria Embankment.

Little, Brown said it would ask "the majority of the directors and staff" to stay with the business. It added that while a small number of staff may not have continuing roles within Piatkus, they would wherever possible be offered jobs within Little, Brown or the wider Hachette Livre UK group to keep job losses "to an absolute minimum".

The transaction was structured as a purchase by Little, Brown of a 100% shareholding in Piatkus, which remains intact as a company. All contracts remain valid and will be honoured. The shareholders of Piatkus Books were represented by The van Tulleken Company.

Piatkus, founded by Judy Piatkus in 1979, publishes commercial fiction, including Nora Roberts, and a range of mind body spirit, health, business and self-development titles. Authors include Patrick Holford, David Allen and Brian L Weiss.

The full story is here. Meanwhile, The Bookseller also reports that:

Samedaybooks has bought Country Bookshop, the online bookselling business and community website for £500,000. The deal does not include the shop, but does include Country Bookshop founder Sridhar Siddegowa, who will join the Samedaybooks management team in order to provide "strategic advice on e-commerce activities across the company".

It is Charles Denton's first acquisition since taking a controlling stake in the troubled retail business earlier this year. Denton, deputy chairman of Samedaybooks, said: "This is our first strategic investment to accelerate our expansion of the company. Countrybookshop.co.uk was a pioneer of online bookselling with a well established brand name, valuable technology, community website software and an extensive customer database. We quickly aim to integrate the business into the Samedaybooks platform to deliver a step change in our growth."

That full story is here.