HMH Strikes Deal for Greenwood with ABC-CLIO  

by Jim Milliot -- Publishers Weekly, 10/1/2008 2:24:00 PM

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has reached a deal with ABC-CLIO that gives the Santa Barbara, Calif. company a perpetual license to use the imprints and publish the titles of HMH’s Greenwood Publishing Group subsidiary. HMH acquired Greenwood as part of its acquisition of Harcourt’s publishing division from Reed Elsevier. Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but the agreement includes the transfer of certain Greenwood assets--including copyrights, contracts and inventory--to ABC-CLIO. While the agreement falls short of an outright purchase, ABC-CLIO president Becky Snyder said the agreement, “gives us all we need to grow the business.” A spokesperson for HMH said the deal gives the company the chance to benefit from the growth of the company. Imprints involved in the deal are Greenwood Press, Praeger Publishers, Praeger Security International and Libraries Unlimited; in all, the imprints publish more than 18,000 titles plus a range of electronic materials.

ABC-CLIO CEO Ron Boehm said the editorial efforts of the two reference publishers “dovetail nicely. There is little overlap.” And Boehm expects ABC-CLIO to be able to accelerate the electronic publishing operations of Greenwood.

The transaction includes a 90 day service agreement and ABC-CLIO is currently evaluating both its staffing and office needs. The company currently does not have an office on the East Coast, and while ABC-CLIO may establish a presence there it is unlikely it will be using Greenwood’s current offices in Westport, Conn. Snyder said ABC-CLIO also needs to fill at least 90 positions and will be giving Greenwood employees the first crack at those jobs. Snyder hopes that all major decision on staffing and space will be made within a month.