NEW YORK/NY/11/27/07– Dwight Opperman, former head of the highly successful West Publishing, has acquired Arizona-based Phoenix New Millennium, publisher of both printed and audio books, according to Publishers Weekly. Opperman built West Publishing into a $3.6 billion company which he sold in 1996 to Thomson Corp.
Phoenix CEO and President Michael Viner will remain as head of the company, and Julie Chrystyn, who directs the Dwight D. Opperman Foundation, will become Phoenix executive vice president.
Viner said Phoenix has plans for a dramatic expansion. The company will sign on several key authors in the near future, and may also expand into other media. Phoenix will continue to release about 24 books and 100 audio books per year.
Opperman's former West Publishing Company today publishes more than 66 million books and 500 CD-ROM libraries as part of Thomson Legal & Regulatory market group.