RBmedia, which produces and distributes audiobooks, has made its second acquisition of the year, buying Gildan Media for an undisclosed price.
Founded in 2007 by former Simon & Schuster Audio head Gilles Dana, Gildan specializes in producing audiobooks in the business and personal development areas. It has a catalogue of approximately 2,200 titles and releases about 250 new audios annually.
Troy Juliar, chief content officer for RBmedia, said Gildan fits well with RBMedia in that Gildan's focus on nonfiction complements RBmedia's strength in fiction. Juliar said with Gildan, he sees some "green spaces" in nonfiction where RBmedia can grow.
Dana will continue to oversee Gildan's day-to-day operations and the company will remain based in New York.
This winter, RBmedia acquired Audiobooks.com the app-based audiobook streaming and download service. Since the Audiobook.com purchase, users of the service have listened to over 4.5 million hours of audiobooks and the company has added 10,000 titles to its library. Audiobooks.com is the fastest-growing part of RBmedia, said John Shea RBMedia's chief product and marketing officer, adding that the company has exceeded its growth forecasts.
The Gildan purchases pushes the number of proprietary titles controlled by RBmedia to over 30,000 and Juliar said the company is signing about 3,500 new titles annually.
RBmedia was officially formed earlier this year following its purchase of Audiobooks.com. Owned by Shamrock Capital Advisors, the company added Audiobooks.com to the assets of Recorded Books which Shamrock bought in August 2015. The Gildan purchase gives RBmedia seven imprints that generate audio content and two distribution platforms--Audiobooks.com and RBdigital.
