Hachette Livre

Hachette Livre S.A. (French: [aʃɛt]; simply known as Hachette) is a French publishing group that was based in Paris. It was founded in 1826 by Louis Hachette as Brédif which later became successively L. Hachette et Compagnie, Librairie Hachette, Hachette SA and is then currently known in France as Hachette Livre. After acquiring an Australian publisher, Hachette Australia was created; in the UK it became Hachette UK, and its expansion into the United States became Hachette Book Group.

Hachette Livre has been owned by the Lagardère Group since 1981 under their publishing division Lagardère Publishing. Lagardère Group in turn is majority owned by the French conglomerate Louis Hachette Group (LHG), resulting from the spin-off of Vivendi.

It was founded in 1826 by Louis Hachette as Brédif, a bookshop and publishing company. It became L. Hachette et Compagnie on 1 January 1846, Librairie Hachette in 1919, and Hachette SA in 1977. The company was family led for several generations, including by Hachette's great-grandson, Robert Meunier du Houssoy. It was acquired by the Lagardère Group in 1981. In 1992, the publishing assets of Hachette SA were grouped into a subsidiary called Hachette Livre (French pronunciation: [a.ʃɛt liːvʁ]), the flagship imprint of Lagardère Publishing. Hachette has its headquarters in the 15th arrondissement of Paris. In 1996, it merged with the Hatier group, and acquired French art book publisher Fernand Hazan Éditeur soon afterwards. In 2004, Hachette acquired dictionary publisher Éditions Larousse.

In 2002, UK publisher John Murray was acquired by Hodder Headline, which was itself acquired in 2004 by the Lagardère Group. Since then, it has been an imprint under Lagardère brand known as Hachette UK.

In 2004, Lagardère acquired Australian publisher Hodder Headline for Hachette Livre, who renamed it Hachette Australia.

In 2006, it expanded into the United States when it purchased Time Warner's book-publishing division, which was then renamed Hachette Book Group USA. Part of Time Warner's holdings was Australian independent publishing house Lothian Books, which was incorporated as an imprint.

In June 2013, Hachette announced that it would acquire the adult trade business of Hyperion Books from Disney. (Disney retained the young adult business and books related to existing Disney–ABC TV properties, under an expanded Disney–Hyperion imprint.)

In 2018, it announced its Robinson Millenials label, under which it would be publishing webcomics in partnership with Hiveworks Comics.