“Baker & Taylor is the primary supplier to public libraries in the U.S.—but the business here is B&T’s retail arm.”
Catching up with PW's Andrew Albanese
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On Tuesday, Shelf Awareness reported that Ingram Content Group has offered to buy the retail wholesaling operation of Baker & Taylor. Sources later confirmed the details for Publishers Weekly, reports Andrew Albanese, Publishers Weekly senior writer.
“According to our sources, the Ingram Content Group did indeed make a tentative offer to buy the retail wholesaling operation of Baker & Taylor—and that’s an important distinction,” he tells CCC’s Chris Kenneally. “Baker & Taylor is the primary supplier to public libraries in the U.S.—but the business here is B&T’s retail arm. Maybe related, or maybe not, but the director of a major library system reached out to me this week to say that the CEO of Follett, B&T’s parent company, had paid a visit to reiterate the company’s commitment to the library market. Perhaps this was in anticipation that news of the offer would leak out.”
“While the Federal Trade Commission has not responded to repeated inquiries, we also confirmed that the FTC did launch what our sources say is, a ‘very preliminary investigation’ of the proposed deal. The FTC does have a pre-merger notification process by which companies can submit their proposed deals in a non-public process to get the FTC’s initial take on whether the deal is OK or not,” Albanese says.
Every Friday, CCC’s “Beyond the Book” speaks with the editors and reporters of “Publishers Weekly” for an early look at the news that publishers, editors, authors, agents and librarians will be talking about when they return to work on Monday.
