Millbrook Press has reached a preliminary agreement to sell the assets of its Millbrook Press and Twenty-First Century Books imprints to Minneapolis, Minn.-based Lerner Publishing Group. The bankruptcy court judge overseeing the bankruptcy of Millbrook will hold an auction July 8 to give other interested parties a chance to bid on the properties. If no bids top the offer by Lerner, court approval of the deal is expected to come by mid-July. Millbrook filed for bankruptcy in February in Bridgeport, Conn.
The Millbrook Press and Twenty-First Century imprints have a backlist of approximately 1,200 titles, most aimed at the school library market. When the deal is completed, all the major assets of Millbrook will have been sold. In April, Millbrook sold its Roaring Brook Press trade line to Holtzbrinck for $4.7 million.
Dave Allen, Millbrook president, said that following the sale of the imprints he expects to take five to seven months to wind down the operations of Millbrook's Copper Beech imprint and to "wrap up" outstanding corporate matters.
