Hachette Book Group Purchases Adult Imprint Hyperion, Backlist and Titles for Future Publication

June 28, 2013 — Disney and Hachette Book Group (HBG) announced today Hachette’s agreement to purchase Disney’s adult trade publishing imprint, Hyperion. When the acquisition is completed, HBG will become the publisher of more than 1,000 books published by the Hyperion adult trade book division since its inception in 1991, as well as approximately 25 books scheduled for future publication. Disney Publishing Worldwide (DPW), the world’s largest publisher and licensor of children’s books, will retain all of its Disney and Disney-Hyperion branded children’s and young adult book titles, and will publish franchise-based titles from Disney/ABC Television Group upon completion of the transaction.

A leading boutique trade book publisher, Hyperion has published more than 250 bestselling books, including numerous #1 New York Times bestsellers. Hyperion’s imprimatur has come to represent great commercial and media impact — from Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy with a foreword by Caroline Kennedy, to Jamie’s Food Revolution by Jamie Oliver, from Mitch Albom’s The Five People You Meet in Heaven to Randy Pausch’s The Last Lecture and Always Looking Up by Michael J. Fox.

HBG will take on Hyperion’s extensive backlist, rich in the areas of inspiration, pop culture, cooking, humor, business, sports, history, self-help, fiction, and more, books that continue to sell year after year in a variety of formats and editions. The acquisition supports HBG’s overall strategic focus on growth and significantly expands the company’s backlist catalog and its nonfiction portfolio. HBG will also publish highly anticipated forthcoming books from award-winning journalist Joanne Lipman, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist J.R. Moehringer, actor Ethan Hawke, Don’t Know Much About series creator Kenneth Davis, and others.

The deal delivers on Disney’s strategy to focus efforts on franchise and synergy titles from its television business. DPW, publisher of books across Disney, Pixar, Marvel, and Lucasfilm franchises, as well as from New York Times bestselling authors Mo Willems, Rick Riordan, Ridley Pearson, and Elizabeth Wein, will take on key ABC, ABC Family, and ESPN titles, including the New York Times bestselling Castle series, tie-in cookbooks to the popular daytime show The Chew, and the forthcoming book based on the Emmy-nominated television series Shark Tank.