NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--News Corp announced today that it has completed its acquisition of the Books & Media segment of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH Books & Media).
As previously announced, the business will be operated by HarperCollins Publishers, a News Corp subsidiary.
“We welcome the talented team at HMH Books & Media to HarperCollins, especially at a time when so many people in so many places are reading and listening to books,” said Robert Thomson, Chief Executive of News Corp. “With the addition of the compelling Books & Media backlist and frontlist, as well as its expertise and creativity in digital development, HarperCollins will be even better positioned to serve authors and audiences around the world.”
“We are happy to welcome HMH Books & Media employees, authors, and illustrators to the HarperCollins family,” said Brian Murray, President and CEO of HarperCollins Publishers. “Uniting two publishing companies, each with more than 200 years of literary history, will be the focus of our combined teams. We look forward to new and exciting opportunities as we chart a stronger future together.”
HMH Books & Media, with its extensive backlist of more than 7,000 titles and a significant frontlist in the lifestyle and children’s segments, has a history of strong profitability. Popular HMH Books & Media titles include 1984 and Animal Farm, Curious George, The Polar Express, Little Blue Truck and The Little Prince. The acquisition gives HarperCollins US rights to J.R.R. Tolkien’s works, which means the publisher now has global English language rights to titles that include The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
HMH Books & Media’s Productions business repurposes its popular brands across media platforms, including the animated series Carmen Sandiego on Netflix, which is also in development as a live-action feature film. The company also has a flourishing audiobooks business, which is expected to add value to HarperCollins’s own large and growing audiobook revenue stream.
HMH Books & Media was acquired by News Corp for $349 million in cash.
HarperCollins Publishers is the second-largest consumer book publisher in the world. In the most recent quarter, ending March 31, 2021, HarperCollins had 19% revenue growth, year-over-year, and Segment EBITDA surged 45%, with both frontlist and backlist performing strongly.
Headquartered in New York, HarperCollins has publishing operations in 17 countries. With 200 years of history and more than 120 branded imprints around the world, HarperCollins publishes approximately 10,000 new books every year in 16 languages, and has a print and digital catalog of more than 200,000 titles. Writing across dozens of genres, HarperCollins authors include winners of the Nobel Prize, the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the Newbery and Caldecott Medals, and the Man Booker Prize. HarperCollins has been home to authors who include Mark Twain, the Brontë sisters, Thackeray, Dickens, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Maurice Sendak, Shel Silverstein, and Margaret Wise Brown.
About News Corp
News Corp (Nasdaq: NWS, NWSA; ASX: NWS, NWSLV) is a global, diversified media and information services company focused on creating and distributing authoritative and engaging content and other products and services. The company comprises businesses across a range of media, including: digital real estate services, subscription video services in Australia, news and information services and book publishing. Headquartered in New York, News Corp operates primarily in the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom, and its content and other products and services are distributed and consumed worldwide. More information is available at: http://www.newscorp.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This release contains forward-looking statements based on current expectations or beliefs, as well as assumptions about future events, and these statements are subject to factors and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. The words “expect,” “estimate,” “anticipate,” “predict,” “believe,” “potential” and similar expressions and variations thereof are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These statements appear in a number of places in this release and include statements with respect to, among other things, the potential benefits from, the acquisition of the Books & Media segment of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Readers are cautioned that any forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties. Many factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in these forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements in this release speak only as of this date and News Corp and HarperCollins undertake no obligation (and expressly disclaim any obligation) to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.
