BBC Worldwide To Acquire Chivers

BBC Worldwide Ltd. has tendered an offer to buy British audiobook publisher Chivers Communications for £8.6 million ($11.8 million). As a precondition for the deal, Chivers had to sell Didio Communications, which works with audio publishers and retailers to develop downloading strategies for their titles and which recently formed an alliance with Lightning Source (Audio, Mar. 5). Didio was acquired by its own management team.

Simon Gibbs, CEO of Chivers Communications in the U.K., said the deal will benefit Chivers North America as well as the company as a whole. "We think the BBC will provide a good level of resources to support Chivers North America's publishing program," Gibbs said. "Chivers North America was originally just a distributor of Chivers's British titles, but it started its own publishing program two and a half years ago, and that's been extremely successful. Now, in addition to that, it will be able to look at distributing some of the BBC's audio titles."

"I think it's very much a matter of business as usual for Chivers North America," agreed Paul Jobling, president of Chivers North America. "But I think the BBC wants a much bigger presence in the U.S., and we're a good vehicle for giving them more distribution to libraries. They'll probably look for someone else to give them more distribution to the trade; they already have a deal with Random House. But as far as we're concerned, it will be a good thing, because they have a big program of their own and are very dedicated to their audio business."