MAIN NEWS HEADLINES
March 2 – March 9, 2006 Edition
Hachette Livre Forms
Intl Board, Including
New Time Warner Unit
NEW YORK, NY/2/28/2006The new owner of Time Warner Books, Hachette Livre, has formed an international board to direct the companys development. The board will be challenged with growing the company across international borders.
Reflecting the international nature of the company, the board will be comprised of Arnaud Nourry, Hachette Livre’s chairman and CEO; David Young, v-p and CEO of Time Warner Book Group; Isabelle Magnac, evecutive v-p and CEO of Hachette Illustrated and Encyclopedia/Partworks divisions; Tim Hely Hutchinson, v-p and CEO of Hachette Livre UK; Jose Manuel Gomez, executive v-p, chairman and CEO of Anaya; Jean-Paul Dupoizat, executive v-p, Group CFO and corporate secretary; and Valerie Bignon, executive v-p of corporate communications.
Hutchinson will oversee adult fiction and Magnac will manage the youth market. Both will be challenged with making the companys fictional releases appealing to a broad international audience.
In early February 2006, Lagardère SCA acquired Time Warner Book Group, the fifth largest U.S. book publisher for US $537.5 million. Through this transaction, Lagardères Book Publishing branch, Hachette Livre, will become #3 worldwide.
This is a major step in fulfilling a Lagardère objective to create a balanced portfolio in three main languages, French, English and Spanish.
Time Warner Book Group is a major trade publisher, with many bestselling authors, including Nelson DeMille, Nicholas Sparks, James Patterson, David Baldacci and Malcolm Gladwell. Besides adult trade, it publishes illustrated, religious and childrens books and has also developed an audio-book imprint. Time Warner Book Group is an important distributor for third party publishers, such as Disney and Microsoft.
Time Warner Book Group also operates in the U.K., Australia and New Zealand, positioning the Lagardère Book Publishing unit, with Arnaud Nourry as President and CEO, as a leading publisher in each of these three countries.