LBF Updates: Van Tulleken Acquired; AbeBooks Goes to Italy  

By Jim Milliot -- Publishers Weekly, 4/14/2008 10:28:00 AM

The first day of the fair also brought a couple of announcements. Quayle Munro, an independent merchant bank with offices in Edinburgh and London, has acquired van Tulleken, the international financial adviser specializing in cross-Atlantic publishing, information and technology deals. The purchase is valued at £6.1 million, including £1.9 million in cash. Founded in 1995 with offices in London and New York, van Tulleken’s clients have included Hearst, Pearson, Dolan Media, Reed Elsevier, von Holzbrinck, Thomson, Wolters Kluwer and Nielsen, as well as private equity firms and small and medium-sized independent companies,  closing over 100 transactions. The purchase gives Quayle Munro a New York office, while giving van Tulleken greater scale.

Separately, AbeBooks announced that it has opened a new Web site in Italy, www.abebooks.it/. The new site will offer 1.4 million Italian books from 98 booksellers in Italy as well as providing access to all other Abe titles. The new site is the sixth regional site operated by Abe.