Actar, the publisher of books on architecture, graphic design, and contemporary art with offices in Barcelona and New York, has signed an agreement with Springer Science + Business Media to acquire the sales and distribution of titles from Birkhäuser Verlag in Basel, Switzerland. Birkhäuser will become an imprint of Actar but will remain in Basel. The acquisition is in line with the recent expansion of Actar’s international business, following the hiring of new partners with the financial resources and experience, a spokesperson said. Actar will begin selling and distributing Birkhäuser titles in the U.S. and Canada on February 1.

Birkhäuser also publishes in the natural scienes segment in such categories as math, the history of science, biosciences, civil engineering, and geosciences. Those areas will remain under Springer. Ramon Prat, founder and managing director of Actar, said the acquisition “marks the dawn of a new era for Actar. Birkhäuser is a global reference for architecture and design publishing and we are extremely proud to be able to acquire and maintain such a living piece of history. The focus and target groups of the Actar and Birkhäuser publishing programs perfectly complement each other and there will be many synergies that will benefit both organizations.”

Andreas Kösters of Springer said the arrangement will allow Birkhäuser to concentrate on its business in STM publishing. Actar will distribute Birkhäuser titles worldwide through its subsidiary ACTAR-D, an international book distributor specializing in architecture, graphic design, and contemporary art titles published by Actar and by more than 80 other international publishers, museums, and institutions.