Mondadori operates four trade publishing houses: Edizioni Mondadori, Giulio Einaudi editore, Edizioni Piemme and Sperling & Kupfer, the last of which also includes Frassinelli.

Mondadori Education holds a 13% share in the Italian textbook market, while Mondadori Electa publishes art and illustrated books and provides museums with management services for exhibitions and cultural events.

Mondadori leads the overall Italian publishing market with a 26.5% share in trade and education combined.

Results from the direct sales and retail division are not incorporated in this report. Mondadori operates a network of 628 stores throughout Italy.

Mondadori was founded in 1907. Arnoldo Mondadori Editore shares are listed on the Milan stock exchange.

Arnoldo Mondadori Editore shares are listed on the Milan stock exchange.

Mondadori announced a plan to acquire RCS Libri in fall 2015. The deal was approved by Italy’s Competition Authorities in early 2016. Many Italian authors criticized the move, arguing that the new combined publishing activities would account for 40% of the book business in Italy.

Analysis & Key Developments

Financial

Mondadori acquired RCS Libri for 127.5 million EUR. The purchase included Rizzoli, and the new combined book divisions were consolidated fully into Mondadori’s financial reports from January 2016. However, following an anti-trust ruling, Mondadori’s 58% share of Adelphi Edizioni will be sold off to Roberto Calasso.

The Mondadori book division reported revenues of 72.6 million EUR for 2015 (down 21% from 2014), with all of trade publishing accounting for a turnover of 160 million EUR (down 12% over 2014)

Revenues from educational publishing were 112 million, almost on par with the previous year.

Internal Organization

Massimo Turchetta, formerly head of RCS Libri, was appointed to oversee the new Rizzoli Libri. Enrico Selva Coddè succeeded Riccardo Cavallero as Managing Director of Mondadori Libri’s trade unit in January 2015.

Merger of Children’s Imprints

The Mondadori Group consolidated its children's imprints from both Arnoldo Mondadori Editore and Piemme to create a unified children's publishing unit. The company announced that the new Mondadori Group Children's Book Division would have a 24% market share. Lorenzo Garavaldi became managing director of the group and Enrico Racca was appointed editorial director of Mondadori Ragazzi and Battello a Vapore.

Incorporation of Mondadori Libri

The Board of Directors of Arnoldo Mondadori Editore announced that they would spin off their book publishing and book distribution operations as a separate, freestanding company on January 1, 2015, to be called Mondadori Libri. The change was made to encourage mergers and acquisitions.

Digital

In 2015, revenue from e-books totaled 10 million EUR, an increase of 15% from 2014. Digital sales accounted for 6.2% of total trade revenue, up from 4.8% in 2014.

The increase is mainly due to above-average digital result from La ragazza del treno, Grey and the After series, which reached a total of almost 200,000 downloads. Downloads totaled 2.2 million, with a daily average of over 6,000. Sales were highest in the summer months and around Christmas, when the daily average increased to nearly 8,000 downloads.

Amazon remained the predominant sales platform for e-books in 2015, followed by Kobo and Apple.

Mondadori’s e-book catalogue totaled over 10,200 titles by the end of 2015, and included most of the group’s new titles.

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