Entourage acquires Picaboo Yearbooks
Princeton, N.J.-based Entourage Yearbooks finalized its acquisition of Picaboo Yearbooks. Combined, Entourage and Picaboo Yearbooks will service more than 10,000 schools and deliver millions of books. Entourage will continue to offer yearbooks under the Entourage and Picaboo Yearbooks brand going forward. Terms weren’t disclosed.
“I am thrilled to have gone through this process with Picaboo Yearbooks,” said Elias Jo, founder and CEO, Entourage Yearbooks. “Entourage has always grown through organic growth, so I think growth through acquisition is a great way to build scale.”
“We’re really excited to join the Entourage team,” said Bill Miles, founder and CEO, Picaboo Yearbooks. “Both companies share the same mission to reinvent the school yearbook industry for the next generation of yearbook creators and consumers. By combining our teams we can more effectively deliver on our promise to the marketplace. It’s a great example of two plus two equals five.”
Picaboo Yearbooks was an offshoot of photo merchandise company Picaboo.com, which began in 2013 with the intention of reinventing the school yearbook market. Together with competitor Entourage, they helped to revolutionize the yearbook industry from standard six-week turnaround times to only three weeks; from binding contracts to flexible, non-binding agreements; from long runs to variable quantities for the same price; and from physical books to e-yearbooks and beyond, the company said. Over the past nine years, the two companies have each attracted thousands of schools and delivered more than one million yearbooks.
“Our combined scale will create efficiencies and an improved offering the benefits of which we can share with our customers through improved service, better technology, and competitive pricing,” added Miles. “Our production is getting more streamlined, we’re getting better pricing from our print partners, and our sales and service teams are getting stronger by learning from each other and sharing resources. Over the next few years, we’re going to be able to bring more innovation to the market, we’re going to be able to provide higher quality books, and we’re going to continue to provide excellent service.”
“We bought the business because there’s a lot of common values in terms of how we service our schools, what it takes to make beautiful yearbooks, and how to make a great piece of yearbook software,” said Jo. “My goal is to take the best pieces of Picaboo Yearbooks and Entourage create the very best yearbook offering in the country across the dimensions of technology, people, and customer service. I think the benefit to the industry and to schools is that we intend to provide a higher level of service by building on our scale and to also be able to leverage our scale to make sure that we continue to provide the best yearbook prices in the industry. The bigger we are, the better rates we can offer.
“We’re more than a yearbook publishing company. We’re a yearbook technology company. So what we’ve done is taken Entourage’s yearbook software and Picaboo’s yearbook software, and we’re going to put them together to create a yearbook software experience that is unparalleled.”