Recent Ownership
In the 1960s, a battle for control of Angus & Robertson commenced, based on its extensive property holdings. Scottish publisher William Collins (later merged into HarperCollins) bought a significant defensive shareholding. In 1970, entrepreneur Gordon Barton, via his IPEC Insurance company, made a takeover offer, including the Collins stake, and soon had effective control. Many of the old staff resigned, and a long period of instability and poor management followed.
Since 1977, the publisher has been a separate company under separate ownership from the bookseller. Angus & Robertson publishers have been an imprint of HarperCollins since 1989.
Ownership of the company has changed several times since the 1970s. In the 1990s, the company was owned by Gordon & Gotch, followed by the purchase by Brashs who merged Bookworld with A&R. For several years the company went by the name Angus & Robertson Bookworld before eventually dropping Bookworld as part of the name. Ownership of the company then passed on to Whitcoulls which was itself later purchased by W H Smith in 2001.
From 2009, Angus & Robertson was under the portfolio of REDgroup Retail, a retail operations company owned by Pacific Equity Partners. In February 2011, REDGroup Retail (including the Borders, Angus & Robertson as well as Whitcoulls chains) were placed into voluntary administration with Ferrier Hodgson appointed as administrators. Retail stores were closed, and the website was sold to Pearson. In 2012 the Borders website became "Bookworld", but the Angus & Robertson website was retained as a clone of Bookworld.
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