Ingram Content Group is an American service provider to the book
publishing industry, based in
La Vergne, Tennessee. It is a subsidiary of
Ingram Industries
Ingram Industries is a manufacturing company headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee. The company consists of diversified businesses in marine transportation aggregate supply, book distribution, print on demand book manufacturing, management and di ...
.
Shawn Morin is CEO, and
John R. Ingram is chairman of
Ingram Industries
Ingram Industries is a manufacturing company headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee. The company consists of diversified businesses in marine transportation aggregate supply, book distribution, print on demand book manufacturing, management and di ...
.
History
The Ingram Content Group was formed, in 2009, when Ingram Lightning Group merged with Ingram Digital Group. Ingram Content Group's operating units are Ingram Book Company, Ingram International Inc., Ingram Library Services Inc., Ingram Publisher Services Inc., Ingram Periodicals Inc., Ingram Digital, Lightning Source Inc., Spring Arbor Distributors Inc., and Tennessee Book Company LLC.
During 1999 and 2000, Ingram Industries negotiated a sale to
Barnes & Noble which was ultimately withdrawn after pressure from
independent bookstore
An independent bookstore is a retail bookstore which is independently owned. Usually, independent stores consist of only a single actual store (although there are some multi-store independents). They may be structured as sole proprietorships, ...
s and the
American Booksellers Association
The American Booksellers Association (ABA) is a non-profit trade association founded in 1900 that promotes independent bookstores in the United States. ABA's core members are key participants in their communities' local economy and culture, and to ...
.
In July 2006, Ingram Industries acquired
VitalSource Technologies, Inc, which it later sold to
Francisco Partners
Francisco Partners is an American private equity firm focused exclusively on investments in technology and technology-enabled services businesses. Founded in August 1999 and based in San Francisco with offices in London and New York City, Franci ...
in April 2021.
In June 2014, the company, in conjunction with
Hachette Book Group USA
Hachette Book Group (HBG) is a publishing company owned by Hachette Livre, the largest publishing company in France, and the third largest trade and educational publisher in the world. Hachette Livre is a wholly owned subsidiary of Lagardère Grou ...
and
Perseus Books Group
Perseus Books Group was an American publishing company founded in 1996 by investor Frank Pearl. Perseus acquired the trade publishing division of Addison-Wesley (including the Merloyd Lawrence imprint) in 1997. It was named Publisher of the Ye ...
, announced that Hachette would buy Perseus, and then sell that company's client services businesses to Ingram, with financial details undisclosed.
On April 4, 2016, John Ingram stepped down as CEO, and was succeeded by Shawn Morin.
In December 2018, it was reported that Ingram Content extended an offer to purchase book distributor
Baker & Taylor
Baker & Taylor, a distributor of books to public and academic libraries and schools, has been in business for over 190 years. It is based in Charlotte, North Carolina and currently owned by President & CEO Amandeep Kochar. Before being acquired ...
's retail and wholesale business from their parent company,
Follett. As a result, Ingram informed the
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) of the proposed deal, and a preliminary investigation was started. The FTC contacted leading book retailers,
Amazon
Amazon most often refers to:
* Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology
* Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin
* Amazon River, in South America
* Amazon (company), an American multinational technolog ...
, and major and independent book publishers to help determine the impact, if any, from the sale.
Services
The company has the industry's largest active book inventory with access to 7.5 million titles. The markets they serve include booksellers, librarians, educators and specialty retailers. Ingram employs approximately 3,000 people worldwide.
Ingram Content Group distributes to independent book stores throughout the United States, from warehouses in
Oregon
Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idah ...
,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Ma ...
,
Tennessee
Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to ...
, and
Indiana
Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th ...
. It also operates a
print-on-demand
Print on demand (POD) is a printing technology and business process in which book copies (or other documents, packaging or materials) are not printed until the company receives an order, allowing prints of single or small quantities. While oth ...
business, under the
Lightning Source
Lightning Source is a printer and distributor of print-on-demand books. The company is a business unit of Ingram Content Group. Originally incorporated in 1996 as Lightning Print Inc., the company is headquartered in La Vergne, Tennessee. Its UK ...
brand, with facilities in Tennessee, Pennsylvania,
Ohio
Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...
,
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...
,
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
,
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...
and
Australia. The company also provides full service distribution, including sales and marketing services via its Ingram Publisher Services division.
In addition to print distribution, Ingram also provides digital content services and distribution through CoreSource, VitalSource, and MyiLibrary.
In 2015, Ingram purchased Aer.io which allows websites, based in the US to sell books from the Ingram catalog.
In June 2017, Ingram purchased Book Network International Limited, a book distributor based in
Plymouth
Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west.
Plymout ...
, U.K., from
Rowman & Littlefield.
See also
*
List of book distributors
This is a list of book distributors, companies that act as distributors for book publishers, selling primarily to the book trade. The list includes defunct and merged/acquired companies, and distributors whose primary business is not books, such as ...
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
2009 establishments in Tennessee
Book publishing companies based in Tennessee
Book distributors
Companies based in Nashville, Tennessee
Ingram family
Publishing companies established in 2009