Infobase Publishing Announces Acquisition of Films Media Group

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Infobase Publishing Announces Acquisition of Films Media Group

Infobase Publishing Company (Infobase) announced today that it has acquired the Films Media Group (FMG) from PRIMEDIA Inc. FMG is a leading source of high-quality educational video and multimedia programs for schools, colleges, libraries, the medical community, and other institutions. Infobase is an educational media company that owns such well-known reference publishing imprints as Facts On File, Chelsea House, Ferguson Publishing, and Bloom’s Literary Criticism. Infobase is a portfolio company investment of Veronis Suhler Stevenson, a private equity firm that invests in the media, information, and education industries.

FMG offers more than 12,000 titles on a wide variety of topics, available in formats ranging from DVD to digital to VHS. The company is comprised of Films for the Humanities and Sciences (FFH&S), Cambridge Educational, Meridian Education, and Shopware. The wide variety of content ranges from art, computer science, literature, and consumer science to teacher education, social studies, psychology, legal studies, and much more.

“There are many similarities between our two businesses,” said Mark McDonnell, president of Infobase. “From an operational and a strategic standpoint, we see FMG as an ideal fit for us. The educational market—the market we serve—is looking for better, more integrated learning tools and solutions.”

“Combine Facts On File’s outstanding print and database content with FMG’s extensive video content, and what emerges is a very impressive set of resources for schools and libraries,” McDonnell continued. “We are particularly excited about the synergies that exist between our existing online reference products and FMG’s video content. We see this as the natural progression of our expanding publishing program.”

With some of its imprints dating back to 1941, Infobase is a leading publisher of curriculum-based print and online reference material for the school and library markets. In 2003, Infobase acquired Ferguson Publishing, a career reference publisher, and in 2005, acquired Chelsea House, a 30-year-old publisher of curriculum-based, nonfiction books for the school and library market.