The paired deals illustrate continuing private-equity appetite for specialist media infrastructure at manageable mid-market valuations.

New York-based private-equity giant Insight Partners has moved to control two of Germany’s largest digital publishing service providers, sealing separate majority acquisitions of Frankfurt-based Bookwire and Berlin-based Zebralution within the past quarter.

Delta Software Group, an Insight-backed UK platform, bought Bookwire Holding from long-time investor VR Equitypartner on 31 October last year, valuing the 150-person company at roughly €100 million off 2024 revenues of €20 million and EBITDA of €5 million.

The deal hands Delta, and ultimately Insight, Bookwire’s cloud OS that delivers 1.3 million ebooks and 300,000 audiobooks to global retailers for 3,600 publishers.

Weeks later, Insight Holdings Group agreed to purchase 100% of Zebralution from German collecting society GEMA, pending antitrust clearance.

Zebralution distributes audiobooks, podcasts and music for more than 1,000 labels and publishers across nine offices, targeting €100 million annual sales. The firm already owns 80 % of ebook/print-on-demand tech house Open Publishing, acquired in December 2024.

Taken together, the transactions give Insight a vertically-integrated German publishing stack spanning production, metadata, marketing and worldwide distribution of digital and print formats.

Industry watchers expect consolidation of back-office systems and cross-selling to the combined 4,000-plus publisher client base, while rivals prepare for a better-capitalised competitor in the €5 billion European digital book market.

Caveat

As above, the Zebralution leg of the deal is explicitly subject to approval by the German Federal Cartel Office, Germany’s national competition regulator.

Bookwire’s sale to Insight-backed Delta Software Group was completed on 31 October, so that portion has already cleared any required antitrust review.

Consequently, the combined strategy only needs the FCO’s green-light for the Zebralution acquisition.

If the authority finds horizontal or vertical overlaps it could impose conditions or, in extremis, block that transaction, but Insight would still own Bookwire regardless.

The View From The Beach

Neither Insight nor the vendors disclosed purchase prices, but the paired deals illustrate continuing private-equity appetite for specialist media infrastructure at manageable mid-market valuations.

This post first appeared in the TNPS LinkedIn newsletter.