[tubemonkey]

Blackstone Audio Buys AudioGo US - Merging Downpour & AudioGo

Blackstone Audio Buys AudioGo U.S. Arm -- 22 Oct 2013

After being acquired by U.K-based AudioGo at the end of 2012, Blackstone Audio has turned around and bought all the U.S. assets of AudioGo in a move that effectively ends the nine-month merger. AudioGo’s U.K. assets in Bath are not part of the deal, which gives Craig and Michelle Black, cofounders of Blackstone Audio, total ownership of the American business.

The unwinding of the deal was largely due to problems in the U.K.-side of the business. The U.K. trade publication The Bookseller reported that the U.K. division has suspended operations due to "financial challenges" while it looks for an investment or a sale. According to Josh Stanton, president and CEO of Blackstone Audio, the U.S. arm of AudioGo has been profitable. Since the December 2012 merger, Stanton, who had been responsible for the combined North American Blackstone-AudioGo business, had been overseeing the integration of the two companies, a process that included the downsizing of its North Kingstown, R.I. office. Stanton said that with the new deal, he expects to retain a recording studio in Rhode Island and a New York City office in addition to the Blackstone headquarters in Ashland, Ore. The purchase includes all AudioGo brands and will bring the Blackstone audiobook catalogue to about 9,000 titles. The addition of AudioGo, “grows Blackstone by about 50%,” Stanton noted. Stanton expects that the AudioGo name will be phased out on titles over the next year or so.

• see this thread for more details -- Blackstone Audio Buys AudioGo US

Dear AudioGO customers -- 02 Oct 2013

All new audiobook purchases will take place at www.downpour.com as the AudioGO US site will no longer be available. If you have already purchased audiobooks from AudioGO, you can access your library indefinitely by bookmarking this page and clicking “My Library” in the upper right corner. We are working to bring all your favorite titles over to www.downpour.com, adding more each week. Many titles are already available, as is a special section called “AudioGO Favorites.” We thank you for your patience during this process and will provide updates as we progress.

AudioGO Acquires Blackstone Audio -- 03 Jan 2013

The AudioGO Group completed its acquisition of Blackstone Audio from founders Craig and Michelle Black, effective December 27, 2012, adding Blackstone’s 5000-title catalog to its existing 10,000 audiobook offerings, some 4000 of which are available to libraries. Craig Black was appointed to the Group’s board of directors, and he and Michelle Black will remain as consultants to the Group. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

AudioGo Combines with Blackstone Audio -- 03 Jan 2013

The AudioGO Group of companies today announced that it had completed the acquisition of Blackstone Audio from the Black family with effect from December 27, 2012. Consideration was not disclosed.

Blackstone Audio Launches Downpour.com! -- 29 Aug 2012

Forgive me if I sound like a father gushing over the birth of his first child, but I’m over-the-top excited about the launch of our new e-commerce site: Downpour.com. Aside from the fact that our customers can now download audiobooks published by Blackstone and most of the main publishing houses, including Simon & Schuster, Penguin, Hachette, HarperCollins, and Recorded Books, the site is just so slick and incredibly easy to navigate. It offers search and download experiences that are second to none.

AudioGO US Brief History

AudioGO started out as Curley Publishing, a publisher of large print books on Cape Cod in Massachusetts. Curley was in turn acquired by Chivers Publishing — making us Chivers North America — moving us to the New Hampshire seacoast region and putting us in the audiobook business.

In August 2001, BBC Worldwide Ltd. acquired Chivers Press including Chivers North America, making us BBC Audiobooks America. In 2005, our corporate offices relocated to the shores of Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island

In April of 2007, BBC Audiobooks America acquired the audiobook publishing assets of Audio Partners Publishing Corporation, providing BBC Audiobooks America with more than 400 titles, including Pride and Prejudice, Brave New World and the 38-title boxed set of The Complete Arkangel Shakespeare. That acquisition also made BBC Audiobooks America the exclusive publisher of all unabridged Agatha Christie audiobook titles in the U.S. and Canada.

In July 2010, a private group of investors from the business, entertainment, and media industries purchased BBC Audiobooks America and BBC Audiobooks Ltd. (UK) and we became AudioGO. We continue to offer the best in quality audio entertainment.