The Chas. Levy Company has sold its sole operating subsidiary, Levy Home Entertainment, to Readerlink, an affiliate of Treesdale Investments, Inc. whose managing partner, Dennis Abboud, had been an executive at Chas. Levy Company from 1994 to 2000. LHE’s management team of Carol Kloster, president and CEO, and Steve Carlson, CFO will continue to head LHE which will be rebranded over the next six to nine months as Readerlink Distribution Services.
In a prepared statement Abboud said, “Our Company will strive to become the ‘reader link’-- the essential link between our publishers, our retail partners and their customers. Our new strategy will help us compete in our industry’s newest frontiers, from eBooks, to ecommerce fulfillment, to proprietary publishing. Most importantly, we will pursue these initiatives while continuing to focus on, and invest in, our core full-service print book distribution business.”
LHE had been majority-owned and controlled by the Levy family since its founding in 1962. Barbara Levy Kipper, chairperson of Chas. Levy LLC, said, "This transaction will allow Levy Home Entertainment to focus on continued growth and investment in its core competencies while leveraging new expertise in digital media and direct-to-consumer fulfillment. We are pleased to have identified the right buyer and are confident the business, its customers and its publisher partners are in good hands."
Barbara Levy Kipper and Jim Levy, Chas. Levy LLC’s vice chairman, are retiring from the company.
