Hachette Calls Off Perseus Acquisition

By Dianna Dilworth 

hachetteHachette has called off plans to acquire Perseus. The publisher announced the transaction back in June, reporting that the deal was expected to close after regulatory approval.

However, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal, the publisher couldn’t come to terms with all of the issues required for the deal to close. Here is more from the report:

The distribution assets made the proposed sale a more complex transaction than simply acquiring a publishing house. As part of the agreement, Hachette, a unit of Lagardere SCA, was to sell Perseus’s print and digital distribution business to Ingram Content Group, a unit of Ingram Industries Inc. That element ultimately doomed the deal, said people familiar with the situation.