Tribune Education Acquires Landoll

Posted on November 19, 1997

Tribune Education announced an agreement to acquire approximately 80% of Landoll, Inc. Landoll is a leading publisher of children's books for the mass market and sells products to mass merchandise stores such as Kmart, Wal-Mart and Target, as well as national pharmacy chains, warehouse clubs and supermarkets. Landoll's education books, coloring books, activity books, storybooks, educational puzzles and sticker books are currently sold in more than 150,000 retail outlets.

"This acquisition opens a new market channel for Tribune Education. Access to the mass market will expand distribution of our consumer books and provide an opportunity to adapt our education content for the consumer market," said Robert Bosau, president, Tribune Education. "Landoll's expertise in cost effective production and mass distribution is a good fit with Tribune Education's strength in content creation."

Landoll also has licensing agreements with several major studios such as Warner Brothers, Universal, DreamWorks and Viacom. Under these licensing agreements, Landoll books feature characters from current movies as well as cartoon characters like "Bugs Bunny" and "Rugrats."