Lately we’ve seen KKR and rival Elliott (the proud owner of both Waterstones and Barnes & Noble) show that hedge-funds can be a constructive force in the publishing industry, contrary to much speculation that Waterstones and Barnes & Noble would be dismembered and sold off bit by bit.
RBMedia, the world’s largest audiobook producer, is owned by hedge-fund KKR, which also controls the digital library platform OverDrive, and which recently sold Audiobooks.com to Storytel, facilitating Storytel’s entry into the US market.
That’s something to bear in mind as we look at RBMedia’s “record-breaking” 2021 performance, which saw entry into new markets including Germany –
and Spain (the latter through the acquisition of Booka, reinvented as BookaVivo) and also entry into the self-publishing sector with the acquisition of Author Republic.
The acquisitions are important in the context of hedge-fund ownership because the very nature of hedge-fun business is to acquire, develop or dismantle, and sell.
Lately we’ve seen KKR and rival Elliott (the proud owner of both Waterstones and Barnes & Noble) show that hedge-funds can be a constructive force in the publishing industry, contrary to much speculation that Waterstones and Barnes & Noble would be dismembered and sold off bit by bit.
With KKR’s deep pockets behind it RBMedia has been able to expand and develop, while also seeing one of its arms – the aformentioned Audiobooks.com, sold off to a competitor, and we can safely assume the long-term objective for KKR’s RBMedia operations, and indeed for OverDrive, is to at some point be sold on. And RBMedia’s 2021 performance will certainly help keep the interest of prospective buyers.
Per the press release,
RBmedia remained the undisputed leader in the spoken audio market with a catalog of nearly 60,000 audiobooks, the largest in the industry. In 2021, the company produced a record number of new titles across its 10 publishing brands—dominating bestseller lists and major industry awards. Produced audio titles for numerous literary award winners in 2021,
Adding,
RBmedia international brands W.F. Howes (WFH) and Wavesound also experienced record growth.
That’s followed by a long list of not un-notable achievements, none of which tell us anything about RBMedia’s revenues or profits to compare even with previous years, let alone with competitor results, and we are at the end of the day left with RBMedia’s claim to being the world’s largest audiobook producer with almost 60,000 exclusive titles.
