Popcorn Books owner Kotov may sell publishing house
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Popcorn Books owner Denis Kotov is considering selling his asset. The decision is made against the backdrop of the initiation of a case of LGBT propaganda.
The fact that Mr. Kotov is looking for buyers for his asset, said a source Vedomosti. The entrepreneur himself confirmed that he is considering such an option. Other details are not given.
Popcorn Books became the first Russian publishing house, against which an administrative case was initiated under Art. 6.21 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations and (or) preferences, gender reassignment). The law banning LGBT propaganda has come into force in the Russian Federation since the beginning of 2023. One of the initiators of the introduction of amendments on LGBT, the head of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Alexander Khinshtein, earlier in February had a meeting with Mr Kotov. As a result, according to the deputy, the owner of the publishing house promised drastic changes in Popcorn Books and “declared a categorical rejection of LGBT culture.”
Denis Kotov is the founder of the Bookvoed network, which in 2018 merged with the New Book network (later the network was renamed Chitay-Gorod). Now the entrepreneur owns 7.09% of Chitay-gorod LLC. Mr. Kotov acquired 100% of Popcorn Books LLC in July 2022. Prior to this, 65.5% of the publishing house belonged to the Irish company Bookmate Limited, 24.5% – to the general director of the Individuum publishing house Alexei Dokuchaev, 10% – to the ex-CEO of Bookmate in Russia Andrey Baev (all are included in the register of foreign agents).
Popcorn Books was founded in 2018. Specializes in young-adult literature. Among the priority topics are the problems of self-identification, racism and sexism, attitudes towards one’s own body. According to the All-Russian Book Rating, the novel “Summer in a Pioneer Tie”, published by the company, about the love of two young men in the first half of 2022, ranked first in terms of sales in terms of money in the segment of fiction.
Read more about the problems of Popcorn Books – in the material “Kommersant” “The Basic Law is in the bind”.
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