Octopus acquires children's publisher Ticktock

Hachette Group company Octopus Publishing has acquired children's non-fiction publisher Ticktock, which produces books for the international co-edition market and has around 700 titles in print.

In a statement, Octopus said it had acquired the business and publishing assets of Ticktock Entertainment Ltd. It declined to comment on the value of the deal, which it said had "just" been completed through Ticktock Entertainment's administrator, Turpin Baker Armstrong.

In October 2011, Ticktock Entertainment Ltd began to offer a range of titles under a new imprint called Wise Walrus, following the voluntary liquidation of Tick Tock Media companies, Ticktock Books and Ticktock Direct, whose names were changed to TTB Kent and TTD Kent respectively in September. According to Turpin Baker Armstrong, TTB had outstanding debts of £325,000 owed to authors and illustrators as well as production suppliers at the time of liquidation last October, while TTD owed some £114,000. Tick Tock Media itself was liquidated in March 2010.

Turpin Barker Armstrong said today the outstanding debts for TTB will not be paid, but there is a chance some of the TTD debts will be settled, as its assets will be fully acquired by Ticktock Entertainment using the money from the Octopus acquisition.

Ticktock director John Twiggs and publisher Tim Cook will be working with Octopus to transition the business to new ownership and to continue developing the forward publishing programme, Octopus said. However, Octopus did not comment on how long Twiggs and Cook will work with them in the process of transition.

Twiggs and Cook were unavailable for comment.