Eksmo bought 51% of Popcorn Books – Kommersant
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The Eksmo publishing house gained control over Popcorn Books, which focuses on publishing books for young people. The amount of the purchase of 51% in Popcorn Books LLC is not disclosed.
Eksmo is one of the largest Russian publishers, part of the Eksmo-AST holding. In the first half of 2023, it ranked second in terms of total circulation of non-periodical publications (20 million copies).
Popcorn Books was launched in 2018. Focused on the young-adult genre. In 2021, it released the novel Summer in a Pioneer Tie by Elena Malisova and Katerina Silvanova, which became the best-selling work in fiction in the first half of 2022 in monetary terms. The novel was taken off the market after the passage of a law banning LGBT propaganda.
When agreeing on the cost, the “potential drop in revenue” in the first half of the year was taken into account, the press service of Eksmo reported. RBC. The volume of investments will be determined before the end of the year. Experts interviewed by RBC estimated the amount of the transaction at 15-60 million rubles. Popcorn Books CEO Dmitry Protopopov confirmed the deal.
At the level of the management of the publishing house and the holding, an agreement was concluded on non-interference in editorial policy. Alexandra Shipetina, editorial director of fiction at Eksmo Publishing House, said that the purchase is related to “the search for new domestic names in literature and the development of the direction of comics, including Asian ones,” and they also plan to expand the portfolio with novels by African and South American authors.
Eksmo explained the purchase by “the group’s strategic interests in expanding the youth readership and their purchasing activity.” The company undertook to take over the alignment of the distribution of the assortment and become “a source of investment for the formation of a new author’s portfolio that meets the public demand and the interests of the target audience.” Mr. Protopopov believes that Eksmo’s capabilities will give the publishing house access to “new tools for buying rights, distribution and production.”
Since the summer of 2022, Popcorn Books has been 100% owned by the founder of the Bukvoed book chain, Denis Kotov. Previously, 65.5% of the company belonged to the Irish Bookmate Limited, 24.5% – to the CEO of the Individuum publishing house Alexei Dokuchaev, 10% – to the ex-CEO of Bookmate in Russia Andrey Baev (Mr. Dokuchaev, Mr. Baev and the Bookmate service are included in the register of foreign agents) .
On the problems with the distribution of LGBT literature in the Russian Federation – in the material “Kommersant” “Books are distributed in an unconventional way”.
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