Mergers & Acquisitions

Mudita Venture Partners has made an unspecified investment in the hybrid publisher Amplify Publishing Group. Launched in 2003, Amplify publishes about 300 titles annually.

Effective immediately, Rowman & Littlefield will produce, distribute, sell, and market books from Brookings Institute Press, while Brookings will continue to oversee acquisitions and editorial review of BIP's titles.

As part of its expansion into the education market with the launch of DK Learning in April, DK has acquired Phonics Books, a publisher of more than 300 decodable books for beginner and catch-up readers.

The digital publisher Podium Audio has acquired Bookstat, the data subscription service that tracks online book purchases in physical, e-book, and audiobook formats.

Audiobook publisher RBmedia has acquired the audiobook business of Upfront Books and the French company Éditions Thélème.

Spotify has completed its acquisition of digital audiobook distributor Findaway. The Swedish streaming giant has 422 million monthly active users, and will use the Findaway purchase to speed its growth in the audiobook market.

Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group has acquired North Country Books. Based in Utica, N.Y., North Country has a backlist of about 200 titles, with a focus on regional books about the Adirondacks and Upstate New York.

Through the deal, the U.K.-based literary and talent agency Curtis Brown, which reps such authors as Nigella Lawson and Jojo Moyes and such estates as those of Ian Fleming and A.A. Milne, will continue to operate under its existing structure and management team.

A little more than six months after acquiring Baker & Taylor from the Follett Corp., new owner Amandeep Kochar sold Baker & Taylor UK to the Little Group, parent company of the U.K.'s largest wholesaler, Gardners.

The University of Georgia Press has acquired NewSouth Books, the independent trade publisher based in Montgomery, Ala.