After a few weeks of rumors, it’s official, Penguin Random House will acquire BOOM! Studios. The deal is expected to close later this summer. The news broke today (I was expecting an announcement at San Diego Comic Con). The terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

BOOM! was founded in 2005 by Ross Richie and and Andrew Crosby in part of a period of publisher growth. 19 years later, the comic publisher has outlasted them all and known for its mix of licensed comics and originals.

In 2017, 20th Century Fox purchased a minority interest in BOOM! and that was passed on to Disney when it purchased Fox in 2019. This resulted in some animated films based on BOOM! comics being scrapped due to their redundancy at Disney.

BOOM!’s editorial staff will continue to run the imprint which becomes part of Random House Worlds’ portfolio. They’ll report to Scott Shannon, President of Random House Worlds. Random House Worlds is the division focused on licensed book publishing working with such properties as Star Wars, Minecraft, Marvel, Magic: The Gathering, and more.

BOOM! will continue to be distributed by Diamond Comic Distributors to the direct market and Simon & Schuster to the bookstore trade. It had been expected they’d have moved to Penguin House’s own distribution network.

In the announcement it seems that BOOM! current Chairman and Founder Richie will be moving away from the company. In the announcement he stated:

It’s every entrepreneur’s dream to launch a company, build it, and sell it to the best. I’m excited to hand the reins of BOOM! over to the best and largest publisher in the world. Their focus on readers and retail partnerships will build upon our work and help our creators achieve even more success. Personally, it’s time for me to take some much-needed time off with my family and explore what’s next.

BOOM! consists of BOOM! Studios, BOOM! Box, KaBOOM!, and Archaia, which it purchased in 2013. Penguin Random House has been looking to expand and attempted to purchase Simon & Schuster, a deal that was blocked by the Department of Justice.

The deal is a sign of confidence in the comic market, enough that PRH would want to make, what we assume is, a sizeable investment. As the largest publisher in the world with a reach far beyond the traditional comic market, it creates enormous potential for BOOM! and its creators.