TexasCHLforum.com

Abraham wrote:Skiprr,

Who makes up their readership? I can't imagine self-aggrandizing books by the O's will garner much attraction even to die hard libs.

So, is this just a wink-wink strawman to give them sixty-five million?

Oh, they are most definitely one of the largest book publishers out there. They can afford it, and I expect them to market the dickens out of the books.

The publisher (now a "holding house"?) came about in 2013 when German mega-media corporation Bertelsmann SE, who owned Random House (originally founded 1925 in the US), agreed with England's Pearson PLC, who owned Penguin Group (originally founded 1935 in the UK), to merge the two operations with Bertelsmann retaining majority ownership. The merger deal was valued at about $3.8 billion.

From the Penguin Random House website:

At a Glance

• Established on July 1, 2013
• Shareholders: Bertelsmann 53% and Pearson 47%
• Headquartered in New York City with operations in 20 countries across five continents
• Made up of 250 editorially and creatively independent imprints
• Comprised of adult and children’s fiction and nonfiction print and digital trade book publishing
• Employs more than 12,000 people globally
• Publishes 70,000 digital and 15,000 print titles annually, with more than 100,000 eBooks available worldwide

Fox News Channel is reporting right now that the Penguin Random House deal for two books from the Obamas is valued at $65 million, not $60 million. But, hey. What's a few million between friends?

bblhd672 wrote:Penguin Random House just flushed $60 million down the progressive drain.

What? You mean that you won't be pre-ordering the hardcovers on Amazon as soon as they're posted? And giving the books as Christmas presents?

To make your start to March a little bit worse, there's this news from Publishers Weekly:

Jim Milliot, for [i]Publishers Weekly[/i], on February 28, 2017 wrote: Penguin Random House has won the auction for books from former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama. PRH CEO Markus Dohle announced Tuesday evening that the company had acquired world publication rights for two books, to be written by President and Mrs. Obama respectively.

Proposals for both books have been making the rounds of New York publishers over the last few weeks and executives had met with both Obamas to discuss a possible deal. PRH was not disclosing terms of the agreement, but a report in the Financial Times had the package going for $60 million.

POTUS was as slow to respond as he has been in everything else recently. He's already fired Sally Yates, and appointed Dana Boente as acting attorney general. http://abc13.co/2kIMIaA That took all of a couple of hours. And hopefully sends a message.

philip964 wrote:https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/01/30/u ... 0&referer=

Acting AG won't defend Trump's executive actions in court.

Yep. What else would we expect of her? And exacerbated by the Schumer/Pelosi led efforts to slow President Trump down by stalling approval of his cabinet.