Mergers & Acquisitions

Baker & Taylor Publishers Services will offer distribution and other functions to children’s, trade, K‐12, higher education and academic publishers. To help lead the unit, B&T has hired distribution veteran Mark Suchomel as senior v-p of sales & client services.

La Martinière Groupe, the French parent company of Abrams, is in discussions to merge with fellow French publisher Média‐Participations. The two companies said that they expect to come to an agreement "in the coming months."

Durham, N.C.-based Carolina Wren Press is acquiring the trademarks and backlist of Winston-Salem-based publisher John F. Blair. The combined company will function as a non-profit publisher and will be renamed Blair.

A week after it revealed that it had received an unsolicited takeover offer, the Quarto Group announced this morning that its discussions with the potential buyer have ended.

Barnes & Noble Education has acquired Student Brands, a direct-to-student subscription-based writing skills service, for $58.5 million.

The Calif.-based company, which is the exclusive wholesaler to Whole Foods, was acquired by industry veteran Christopher Robbins.

Bertelsmann has agreed to buy a 22% stake in Penguin Random House that will generate about $1 billion for Pearson, which will still have a 25% stake in the trade publishing giant.

The purchase, which was announced in April, will boost Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial’s position in Spanish-language trade-book publishing markets throughout the world.

Ingram Publisher Services has acquired NBNi, the U.K.-based arm of the U.S. distributor National Book Network.

Effective July 1, MVB Marketing, a subsidiary of Börsenverein, the German Publisher and Bookseller Association, will take over ownership of Pubnet and PubEasy. Ted Hill has been named general manager.