I have sold BOOM! Studios to Penguin Random House.
This is exciting news for creators. PRH is the biggest publisher in the world. They will be able to get more of our creators’ comics into more fans’ hands in the book trade because of their experience and size and in the Direct Market they are the distributor of choice for Marvel. Their publishing has global reach and will be able to get creators’ series into the international global market in a way that will be simply unmatched by anyone else.
This is exciting news for our retailers in the Direct Market. Random House Worlds, the division of PRH acquiring BOOM!, has experience publishing prose books of the biggest IP in the world, like Star Wars, Marvel, Critical Role, Magic The Gathering, and Dungeons and Dragons, so they love the pop culture space, understand its customer, and its distribution arm is already an experienced provider of Marvel Comics every week into the comic shop specialty space.
This is exciting news for our fans. The biggest prose book publisher in the world is excited about comics and wants to get into the action and believes it is an area of growth. They want more people to read — more people to read comic books!
The real hero of this deal is Chief Financial Officer Jennifer Harned who redefines what “above and beyond” means. Her dedication and commitment has been nothing short of awe inspiring and she kept going, delivering Herculean result after Herculean result, long after anyone else including me would have given up. My respect and gratitude for you, Jen, knows no end.
When I launched BOOM! out of my apartment, I did not have the resources to grow it to its potential. I have to thank Scott Lenet, co-founder and Director of the venture capital fund DFJ Frontier, who saw potential in me and was willing to invest actual dollars in comic book publishing. The Lumberjanes, Erica Slaughter, and Keanu Reeves’ BRZRKR simply would not exist without your investment and dedication to the company.
I would also like to thank Paul Levitz, one time President of DC Comics, who has been on the BOOM! board of directors for 10 years. He has served tirelessly hoping to provide the very best for the company’s creators, its retailers, and its staff.
For years, Google has had an autocomplete on its query “Who owns BOOM! Studios?” After 20th Century Fox made a minority investment in the company, it would erroneously say Fox owned the company. Then when Disney bought Fox, the Google search function would say Disney owned BOOM!. So let me clarify for once and for all…
As of today, Penguin Random House owns BOOM! Studios.
What an exciting, momentous day!
Thank you to everyone who made this possible: the creators who made the comics, the fans who bought our books, and the retailers who championed them!
Thank you all for your support.
As for me, The Founder of the company, it has been an epic ride as CEO for 16 years and then my promotion to Chairman of the Board for the past 3 years.
I am not transitioning to Penguin Random House as a part of this deal, so that means I no longer work at BOOM!, the house I built and ran.
I’m looking forward to exceptionally long vacations with my wife and 2 kids and figuring out anything I might want to do in the future. But for right now, the pool is looking really good.
Thanks to all of you! 🙏
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