According to the New York Times the Perseus Books Group has acquired Consortium, a Minnesota-based company that provides sales, marketing, distribution and collection services for up to 100 small publishers including New Society Press (which published the Barefoot Gen manga now published by Last Gasp, see 'Last Gasp Readies New Edition of Barefoot Gen'), City Lights, and Seven Stories Press. 

Book distribution has become an increasingly competitive field as publishers with substantial sales and distribution units seek to amortize the expense of these operations by taking on new clients.  The Perseus Book Group, which includes Basic Books, Da Capo Press, Westview, Running Press (which publishes Jordan Weisman's Cathy's Book), Counterpoint and other imprints, purchased distributor Client Distribution Services in April of 2005 (see 'CDS Completes Round Trip').  Tokyopop only recently left CDS for Harper/Collins (see 'Tokyopop in Alliance With Harper Collins) and CDS still distributes Burlyman and Titan to name a few publishers with comic connections.