Editor's Note:  See special commentary from Senior Editor Cary Sherburne below

Boston, MA – codeMantra announced today that it has been acquired by a Boston-based investment group with plans to support the company’s growth and expansion.  The staff, client services and operating foundation of codeMantra will remain in place.  With this change of ownership comes additional management and capital resources to grow and expand the company’s services and technology.

The company is also pleased to announce that Vaidyanathan (Nathan) Segaripuram, formerly codeMantra LLC’s CFO has been appointed Chief Executive Officer, and Walter W. J. Walker, codeMantra’s Executive Director of Publishing Services, will be the company’s President. Industry veteran Ed Marino, will join the company as Executive Chairman.

“We are very excited to be working with the codeMantra team to address the digital publishing needs of companies worldwide”, said Ed Marino,  “codeMantra is an excellent company with a strong team and a passion for customer service. We see a bright future for the company and the services we can provide to the growing customer base.”

“codeMantra has a solid technology foundation, a terrific client base and a strong market position to build upon. The combination of new ownership and resources focused on growing and expanding codeMantra’s services and technology will enable the company to better serve clients as the world of digital publishing solutions continues to evolve”, said Nathan Segaripuram, codeMantra’s CEO. 

Building on its established reputation for digital publishing solutions, the company plans to fortify and extend the capabilities of collectionPoint™, the company’s digital asset management and distribution platform.  The company will allocate resources to the development of software/service offerings in both digital pre-press and post-production. These offerings are targeted at high-value content in the education, professional reference, science/technical/medical (STM) segments. A broad spectrum of new outsourced software/service packages include: automated and semi-automated composition, collaborative workflows for comprehensive digital and print production, full title management capabilities, sales reporting/analytics tools, metadata management and master data management. 

“The content market continues to evolve at a staggering pace. Managing that change and addressing the challenges confronting our publishing clientele is mission critical for codeMantra. Our new owners bring both the experience and resources essential to that mission,” said Walker.    

codeMantra headquarters will move to Boston while maintaining its global footprint in the UK, Italy and Asia. 

Commentary by Cary Sherburne

Many of our readers will know Ed Marino from his extensive industry background, most recently as CEO of LW Robbins, Wilde and President & CEO of Presstek.  Marino was also one of the founders of Lightning Source and also served at Kodak and Danka in a variety of executive positions. 

If our readers are not familiar with codeMantra (which I wasn’t until I received a call from Mr. Marino), it is well worth perusing its web site.  It acts as an intermediary service between publishers and the final output, which could be print or digital.  Key to its market value is the fact that the company can receive a book manuscript (currently in the scientific, technical, medical and educational, as well as trade segments) and accurately compose and convert it to the more than 20 different ebook formats used worldwide.  codeMantra also has a very strong digital asset management system for storing and distributing both content and metadata.  One of the barriers to ebook adoption, particularly in Europe where adoption rates are fairly low, has been the fragmented nature of the ebook market, and codeMantra is well positioned to solve this problem for publishers.

For larger publishers, codeMantra services remove the ebook composition, distribution and conversion headache and provide a centralized database for all versions of the content.  It would presumably also make it easier for professors to quickly compile custom course materials with appropriate copyright clearance from materials in the database. 

For printed versions, most large publishers already have relationships in place.  However, the number of small and self-publishers continues to grow, and these publishers may not have a print relationship established.  This potentially opens up a partnership opportunity for book printers who may wish to receive codeMantra print streams.  In addition, a print partner may also be able to take advantage of codeMantra ebook conversion services to facilitate that service for their own publisher clients.

The book publishing and printing markets are certainly going through a period of dynamic change, and both printers and publishers have had to adjust significantly to maintain viability in this turbulent market space. Services such as those offered by codeMantra, and with guidance of the experienced leadership the company has put in place, could go a long way toward more stability and increased growth opportunities for both printer and publishers around the globe.