Drake Star Partners Advises American Management Association International On Its Divestiture Of Amacom To Harpercollins Publishers

NEW YORK | March 6, 2018 – Drake Star Partners announced today that it acted as exclusive financial advisor to American Management Association International (AMA) in its divestiture of the trade book assets of AMACOM to HarperCollins Publishers. HarperCollins will take over all front list and backlist publication, sales, distribution, and licensing of the more than 600 books in AMACOM’s catalog. AMACOM, which primarily focuses on personal and professional growth and business leadership, will be a sub-imprint of the recently launched HarperCollins Leadership (HCL) imprint, which is run out of the company’s Nashville, TN offices. Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Manny Avramidis, President and CEO of AMA, said, “I am pleased that HarperCollins, a top global publisher, realizes the strength in AMACOM.  I am confident that HarperCollins is well-positioned to take AMACOM’s world-class authors and title list to the next level. After a detailed review of our operations and key strengths, with the counsel of Drake Star Partners, AMA decided to divest AMACOM. AMA will continue to focus on a strategic expansion of its core business, best-in-class professional training and development.”

“Jim Holzer and his team at Drake Star Partners provided invaluable guidance in understanding our business and leveraging their knowledge of the human capital management and training sector to help us achieve an excellent outcome. Their deep experience in sellside M&A enabled us to complete a transaction that uniquely satisfied all of our objectives.”

Jim Holzer, Managing Partner at Drake Star Partners noted, “Known around the world for its unmatched content and effectiveness in developing business professionals at all levels, AMA is an organization that we are truly proud to have served. We look forward to seeing AMA’s continued success in the HCM and training markets.”

“Business, management and leadership are key growth areas for HarperCollins internationally,” said Brian Murray, President and CEO of HarperCollins Publishers. “The purchase of AMACOM’s trade publishing will allow us to broaden our catalog of books with potential in emerging markets, from Asia to South America. It is a natural fit for our expanding publishing programs.”

Business development, marketing and editorial for AMACOM will be led by Jeff James, Vice President and Publisher of HCL.

“Acquiring AMACOM books extends our connectivity with the business professional audience and gives us a deeper product offering in this highly sought-after segment,” said James. “We are excited to represent the highly-accessible content found in titles like The First-Time Manager, Just Listen, and Paul Falcone’s well-known 2600 Phrases series. We are working hard to ensure that AMACOM authors and agents experience a smooth transition in becoming part of our organization.”

The Nashville team has an extensive track record of publishing bestselling leadership and professional development titles including New York Times bestsellers The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John C. Maxwell and The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey. HCL’s first release, Building a StoryBrand by Donald Miller (October 2017), debuted at #1 on the Wall Street Journal hardcover business bestseller list.

Drake Star Partners’ team: Jim Holzer, Alexandra Da Silva
Legal advisor to seller: Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz

About American Management Association International

American Management Association International (AMA) is globally recognized as a leader in talent transformation.  For 95 years, it has helped millions of people bring about positive change in their performance in order to improve results.  AMA’s learn-by-doing instructor-led methods, extensive content and flexible learning formats are proven effective – and constantly evolve to meet individuals’ and organizations’ changing needs.

For more information, please visit www.amanet.org

About HarperCollins
HarperCollins Publishers is the second largest consumer book publisher in the world, with operations in 18 countries. With 200 years of history and more than 120 branded imprints around the world, HarperCollins publishes approximately 10,000 new books every year in 17 languages, and has a print and digital catalog of more than 200,000 titles. Writing across dozens of genres, HarperCollins authors include winners of the Nobel Prize, the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the Newbery and Caldecott Medals and the Man Booker Prize. HarperCollins, headquartered in New York, is a subsidiary of News Corp (NASDAQ: NWS, NWSA; ASX: NWS, NWSLV) and can be visited online at corporate.HC.com.

For more information, please visit www.harpercollins.com

Inquiries

For further inquiries, please contact:

Jim Holzer
Managing Partner | Drake Star Partners
jim.holzer@drakestar.com | +1 212 508 7103