Trade Books

Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A. announces to have completed today – following the go-ahead from the relevant Authorities – the acquisition of RCS Libri through its subsidiary Mondadori Libri S.p.A.

The acquisition marks a major step in Mondadori Group’s successful strategy to focus on core businesses, strengthening its competitive position on the Italian trade and education books market, and on the international illustrated books market.

The acquisition of RCS Libri was finalized today in accordance with the agreement signed and disclosed to the market on 4 October 2015.

The scope of the transaction includes the entire equity interest (99.99%) held by RCS MediaGroup S.p.A. in RCS Libri S.p.A., including the underlying subsidiaries, and the exclusive ownership of all the trademarks in the books segment, including Rizzoli.

The price of the transaction, which incorporates certain contractual adjustments, is 127.1 million euro, settled in cash today by a dedicated credit line made available to the Group.

The net financial position of the scope at 31 March 2016 shows a positive figure (cash) of approximately 29 million euro, reduced in April following the cash out of approximately 9 million euro for the purchase of a 43.71% interest in Marsilio Editori S.p.A. (increasing the total investment to 94.71%), while at closing, it shows an estimated positive net financial position of approximately 16 million euro.

Under specific contractual clauses, the price may be subject to adjustments of up to +/- 5 million euro, if certain financial targets are met in 2015, as resulting in the 2015 financial statements of RCS Libri S.p.A., which will be determined and disclosed in the coming weeks, in accordance with the contractual agreements.

The transaction includes an earn-out of up to 2.5 million euro to RCS MediaGroup S.p.A., upon the occurrence of certain results in 2017 Mondadori Group’s books segment.

This scope, which will be consolidated as from 1 April 2016, achieved in 2015 the following pro-forma figures: revenue of 225 million euro and EBITDA before non-recurring costs of 13.6 million euro.

Under the authorization of the Antitrust Authority, as part of the remedies set out therein, Mondadori will dispose of Marsilio Editori S.p.A. and of the business unit of the Bompiani publisher.

Its title will be The name of God is Mercy and it will be published worldwide in January 2016 on the occasion of the Jubilee. The Italian publisher is Piemme, which has world rights.

In a conversation with the Vatican expert Andrea Tornielli, Pope Francis discloses the core of his papacy and, in his simple and straight words, conveys the great message of the Holy Year of Mercy.

For the first time, in a book interview signed by himself, Pope Francis addresses each woman and each man on Earth in a deep, simple and intimate dialogue. Through his own experience as a priest and shepherd, the pope talks about Mercy, a subject of central importance in his teaching and testimony. He explains the reasons for this extraordinary Holy Year that he has so strongly promoted, and in doing so he speaks to all the souls – inside and outside the Church – who are looking for a meaning in life, for a road to peace and reconciliation, for a healing to their physical and spiritual wounds. It is the summing up of his teachings and papacy.

Jorge Mario Bergoglio Born in Buenos Aires the 17th of December 1936, since the 13th of March 2013 he is the Bishop of Rome and the 266th Pope of the Catholic Church. On the 13th of March 2015 he decided to give a decisive turn to his papacy by announcing the Holy Year of Mercy that will begin on December 8th 2015 and will end on November 20th 2016.

Andrea Tornielli Vatican expert, journalist at the newspaper La stampa and responsible for the website Vatican Insider, he collaborates with several Italian and international newspapers. He has written many books, among which the first biography of the Pope, Francis. Together (2013), translated into 16 languages, and Pope Francis. This economy kills, translated into 9 languages.

[Photo credits: MONDADORI PORTFOLIO/Archivio Grzegorz Galazka/Grzegorz Galazka]

With a print run of 500,000 copies, Italy is the first country, outside the US and the UK, to publish the new novel by E L James.

After the success of the Fifty Shades of Grey Trilogy, with worldwide sales of over 125 million copies, in just 4 days, the new novel, GREY sold more than a million copies in the United States, beating all previous records.

Seen through the eyes of Christian Grey, his thoughts, reflections and dreams, E L James offers readers a new perspective of the love affair that has enthused millions of readers around the world.

Christian Grey loves to have control over everything: his world is ordered, methodical and entirely empty until the day that Anastasia Steele bursts into his office with her enchanting body and splendid chestnut hair. He tries to forget her, but is overwhelmed by an emotional storm that he can’t quite understand and is unable to resist.
Unlike all the other women that Christian has met before, the shy and ingenuous Ana seems to reach straight to his heart – a cold and injured heart – and see beyond the image of the successful businessman and his exclusive and luxurious lifestyle.
With Ana, will Christian be able to banish the nightmares of his childhood and the ghosts of his past that torment him every night? Or will his obscure sexual desires, his obsession with control and the self-hatred that fills his soul push Ana away and destroy the fragile hope that she offers him?

Find out, from 3 July with Grey.

Mondadori and Horizons Unlimited – the Bologna-based company that runs MLOL (MediaLibraryOnLine), a network of more than 3,000 libraries in 15 Italian regions and in 4 foreign countries for the distribution of digital content – have reached an agreement to make the ebooks of the Mondadori Group available at Italian public libraries.

From next January, over 6,000 ebook titles from the catalogues of Edizioni Mondadori, Einaudi, Sperling & Kupfer and Piemme will be made available to the library system through the MLOL platform, adding to the 19,000 or so digital titles already available.

MLOL will manage a distribution channel for Mondadori aimed at all the (public, university and school) libraries in Italy and abroad, along with a dedicated shop and a series of tools that will make it possible to integrate the Mondadori digital titles with the catalogues of the libraries.

The ebooks produced by the Mondadori Group will be distributed on MLOL with the standard “one-copy-one-user” formula: in practice, a mechanism that simulates the library loan of printed books. This basic formula will enable single libraries to acquire a given title at full price and to make it available as a free remote download with a DRM of 14 days to users of the library. The aim of the Mondadori and MLOL project, however, is also to experiment in the future with new sales formulas based on the concept of “pay per view”.

“We are extremely pleased with this agreement,” declared Riccardo Cavallero, general manager of Trade Books at the Mondadori Group. “Libraries are a very valuable channel for the experience of digital reading that in this way will become even more open, shared and accessible. It means that ebooks can reach a wider public in an authentic process of democratisation,” Cavallero concluded.

“The entry of the Mondadori Group in the digital market for libraries completes a cycle begun by MLOL in 2009,” said Giulio Blasi, CEO of Horizons. “The inclusion of all of Italy’s leading publishers on MLOL marks a significant closing of the gap between the situation here and that in the United States, where 90% of public libraries and all academic libraries offer their users access to ebooks. Through MLOL almost half of Italian public libraries have access to the books produced by the country’s leading publishers. This means that Italy is among the leaders in Europe in the provision of digital library services, something of which we are extremely proud.”

According to Stefano Parise, President of the Italian Libraries Association (AIB), “this is an agreement that gives libraries access to the ebook catalogues of Italy’s leading publishing group. I hope that this example will encourage other publishers to do the same and to experiment with innovative formulas, while we wait for the legislative measures that will define the role and prerogatives of libraries also in the digital area. The AIB is committed to facilitating this development, in line with the recommendations of the international library organisations, the IFLA and EBLIDA.”

In the book by Tea Stilton titled The Blue Scarab Hunt (Edizioni Piemme) for the purpose of explaining the history of the ancient city of Thebes – currently Luxor – a map of the Nile Valley was published with no indication of the State of Israel.

This was never meant to be a geographic and/or political depiction of Egypt and/or its borders, but simply an identification of the place where the new fictional story of the leading character occurred.

Geronimo Stilton, with his book titled Il mio primo atlante (My First Atlas), has undertaken to describe the geographic layout of the area in a page with a political map where all sovereign states are clearly indicated.

We regret the error and we proceeded to stop the distribution of the book and pulped all the copies while in its next reprint, a new map will be attached.

Mondadori will propose a large number of public events at this year’s of “Lucca Comics & Games”, the International Festival of Comics, animated film, illustration and games. From today, Thursday 31 October, until 3 November, fans can choose from a series of meetings with authors, presentations, previews and events at the Mondadori Comics Stand (Piazza Napoleone Pavilion E149 ) and the Mondadori-Games Stand(Carducci Pavilion A709 ) and at other festival locations.

Starting today, Thursday 31 October with a celebration of the great George R.R. Martin, an event dedicated to the Game of Thrones with a contest between cosplayers and highly qualified judges such as Sergio Altieri, Matteo Patané and Edward Stoppacciaro, and the screening of a key episode of the TV series broadcast on Sky, at 5.30 pm in the Auditorium San Girolamo.

Friday 1 November is a very full day: at the Mondadori-Comics Stand at 10 am Giancarlo Berardi and Ivo Milazzo, creators of the celebrated Ken Parker, will reveal the details of the re-edition of the Lungo Fucile saga.

At 12 Cecilia Randall will present Millennio di fuoco together with Francesco Millennium Falcons. At 12 midday and at 5 pm, a double date with Gine, the designer of the unpublished Gli scudi di Marte, the twelfth volume of the series Historica. The day continues with a preview presentation of Prima, a new series of bimonthly Mondadori Comics: at 4 pm (and again on Saturday at 5 pm), a meeting with Robin Recht , one of the two extraordinary designers of Elric – il trono di rubino, the first volume of the saga.

And don’t miss at 4 pm, in the Auditorium San Girolamo, the long-awaited Chrysalide Roundtable, featuring Licia Troisi, Leonardo Patrignani, Emma Romero, Barbara Baraldi, Francesco Falconi and Vanni Santoni, with Sergio Altieri in the moderator’s chair.

The first event on Saturday 2 November is at 11.15 am in the Ingellis Hall, where Paolo Barbieri presents Apocalisse with Valerio Massimo Manfredi. At 2 pm there are two events: Valerio Massimo Manfredi presents My Name is Nobody: The Return at the Auditorium San Romano. While the spectacular Cosplay Hunger Games Parade (in partnership with Universal Pictures ) begins, starting from the MOV Area of the Praetorian Loggia in Piazza San Michele ending at the Mondadori-Games Stand. Almost at the same time, also on the Stand, the Cosplayer Hunger Games photo session will start.

And again on the Hunger Games theme, at the Universal stand the public may draw a ticket to win great Hunger Games prizes. While at 4 pm, on the Mondadori-Comics Stand, a special guest Hermann will be available to the public to sign copies of Bois Maury from the Historica series.

The grand finale of the day will take place at 4.30 pm, with the C&G Cosplayer Asterix event, on the Lucca stage: a surprise that should not be missed.

Sunday 3 November, the final day, begins with Vanni Santoni presenting Terra ignota, with Emanuele Manco of Fantasy Magazine, at 11.15am in the Ingellis Hall, and ends wonderfully with the presentation of I regni di Nashira. Il sacrificio by Licia Troisi accompanied by Sandrone Dazieri, at 2 pm in the Auditorium San Romano.

In addition, every day at the Mondadori-Comics Stand, you can browse and interact with Mondadori digital comics (Diabolik, Asterix, Lupo Alberto, Milo Manara, etc.) on the latest generation devices available to visitors.