Simon & Schuster Acquires Dutch Publisher Veen Bosch & Keuning (publishersweekly.com)
Simon & Schuster has acquired Veen Bosch & Keuning, the largest Dutch book publishing house. The acquisition includes all of VBK's imprints in the Netherlands and Belgium, as well as its sister companies, the audiobook producer Thinium, and Bookchoice, a subscription-based platform for e-books and audiobooks. Financial terms of the cash acquisition, which is still subject to review, were not disclosed. The move marks the first major instance of a promised international expansion of S&S, which CEO Jonathan Karp alluded to last year following the acquisition of S&S by private equity firm KKR. The acquisition is also S&S's first of a non-English-language publisher, and provides the company a new foothold in the European market, where "the companies aim to provide a better avenue to sell, produce, and distribute... titles in Europe and to publish more S&S titles locally," as per a release.