Acquisitions: Germany's MVB Buys Pubnet and Pubeasy

Stepping up its international expansion with an entry into the US market, Germany’s MVB acquires two ordering services, forming a New York-based subsidiary, MVB US.

Image – iStockphoto: Bravissimo

By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson

‘A Leading Position Among Service Providers’

A subsidiary of Germany’s Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels, the Publishers and Booksellers Association, MVB has acquired two former Nielsen offerings, Pubnet and Pubeasy.

The two ordering services had been sold to the consumer marketing research company NPD when it bought Nielsen BookScan in January.

Ted Hill

Consultant Ted Hill (THA Consulting) has been tapped to head up a resulting New York-based company, MVB US, Inc., created to operate Pubnet and Pubeasy, beginning Saturday (July 1).

MVB, Marketing und Verlagsservice des Buchhandels GmbH, is known for operating Germany’s Books in Print metadata service, VLB or Verzeichnis Lieferbarer Bücher, for more than 45 years. As Publishing Perspectives has reported, MVB has recently has launched a new company in South America, Metabooks Brasil, led by Ricardo Costa.

According to press materials, the current technology used by Pubnet and Pubeasy “is licensed until the end of 2018, after which it will be replaced with MVB’s own platform.” That infrastructure is being developed in Frankfurt.

And the rationale for the acquisition has to do with what MVB describes as the “the need for internationally active service providers” responsive to the requirements of “the increasing global presence of publishing groups.”

In a prepared statement, the managing director of MVB, Ronald Schild, is quoted, saying:

Ronald Schild

“The acquisition of ordering systems Pubnet and Pubeasy gives MVB a leading position among service providers in two of the world’s largest book markets, the US and Germany.”Both offer a high degree of recognition as well as a very good market penetration.

“The technical and substantive proximity to our existing IBU business makes the takeover a perfect acquisition within our development strategy, with which we want to grow beyond the borders of the German-speaking region.

“The synergies in the functionality of the three ordering systems provide us with the opportunity
to merge the technical infrastructure so as to serve the current and additional markets with a uniform platform strategy.”

‘Exceptional Experience and Focus’

Pubnet is characterized in media material as “organizing the ordering process between publishers and book retailers with the standard global Electronic Data Interchange.

“Orders are sent to Pubnet on a completely automated basis,” the MVB says in its announcement, “and forwarded to the appropriate publishers.” The attraction here is aggregation, the system making it possible for publishers and retailers to access each other without making individual approaches, something the company says, “is particularly relevant for communications between major book retailers and smaller publishers, and smaller book retailers and publishers.”

The statement says that Pubnet’s accounts comprise some 250 active publishers and/or suppliers and 1,600 active retailers. The company reportedly made 16.7 million business transactions in 2016.

Pubeasy is described by MVB as “a Web-based ordering system used worldwide,” with automated tracking and management of pricing, delivery viability, confirmations, order history, and status. The service is free of charge to booksellers. Publishers pay a fixed annual fee calculated on previous experience.

Pubeasy, says MVB, has 11 US and three Canadian suppliers, and 4,100 dealers operating in 100 countries. In 2016, Pubeasy reportedly made 10.2 million transactions.

Speaking for the selling entity, The NPD Group’s chief Karyn Schoenbart is quoted, saying:

Karyn Schoenbart

“NPD is committed to serving the book industry, and this is great news for the industry.”Clients of Pubnet and Pubeasy will benefit from MVB’s exceptional experience and focus on continued development of the commercial services.

“NPD will continue to build out NPD BookScan and related services within our core areas of expertise, including market measurement and analytic solutions.”

And Hill, taking on his new role, is quoted, saying, “I’m very much looking forward to working with MVB to rebuild and relaunch Pubnet and Pubeasy to create a better, more seamless experience for our customers.”

More from Publishing Perspectives on Nielsen is here, on MVB is here, and on Pubeasy is here.

About the Author

Porter Anderson

Porter Anderson is a non-resident fellow of Trends Research & Advisory, and he has been named International Trade Press Journalist of the Year in London Book Fair's International Excellence Awards. He is Editor-in-Chief of Publishing Perspectives. He formerly was Associate Editor for The FutureBook at London's The Bookseller. Anderson was for more than a decade a senior producer and anchor with CNN.com, CNN International, and CNN USA. As an arts critic (National Critics Institute), he was with The Village Voice, the Dallas Times Herald, and the Tampa Tribune, now the Tampa Bay Times. He co-founded The Hot Sheet, a newsletter for authors, which now is owned and operated by Jane Friedman.