A celebrated dealmaker, Leo Hindery Jr., who, as chairman of Telecommunications Inc. sold his company to AT&T three years ago in one of the first megadeals that have been transforming the media and communications industries, is to do his first book for S&S's Free Press imprint. Free Press publisher Martha Levin announced the buy, which was made from agent Christy Fletcher at Carlisle & Company by executive editor Bill Rosen. He bought North American, first serial and audio rights, and the book, to be co-written with reporter Leslie Cauley of the Wall Street Journal, is set for fall 2002. In it, Hindery, who now heads his family's investment firm, HL Capital Inc., will write about some of the huge deals with which he has been involved, and about the new style of CEO who looks to integrate products, technology and distribution in the rapidly changing media marketplace.
In another big Free Press business book deal, senior editor Fred Hills won a heated auction, against Doubleday Currency and HarperBusiness, for a new investment book by Fred Siegel (Stocks for the Long Term). Hills paid a major six figures for North American, first serial and audio to agent Wes Neff at Leighco for an untitled book of advice about investing in the current "post-bubble" economy.
