Godengo and Texterity join forces to focus on Digital Publishing sector.

Under terms of the completed transaction, Godengo  has acquired Texterity, a provider of digital magazines and mobile applications. Terms of the private deal were not disclosed.

The combined company provides services to more than 1,200 magazine titles owned by more than 500 publishers throughout the United States, Canada, and Australia. It is also the only technology-service provider in the space that helps publishers seamlessly transition, integrate, and enhance their content across multiple digital and mobile platforms, the companies said.

“Godengo and Texterity have complementary expertise, specializations, and cultures, and together we’ll offer a level of functionality and flexibility to clients that is well beyond anything currently in the marketplace,” said Peter Stilson, Godengo’s President and CEO, who will lead the combined company as CEO. “The publishing industry has been looking for a true partner that can meet the full scope of needs in cross-platform digital and mobile integration, and now it has one.”

Stilson added that a key objective of the combined company, which will be re-branded in the months ahead, is to continue to grow its capabilities. “We’ve just completed raising a Series C round of growth capital and will use those resources to expand and enhance our services and products.” Capital for expansion and facilitating the purchase of Texterity was provided by investors including New Science Ventures.

Carl Scholz, who is currently President of Texterity and previously served as the company’s chief operating officer, will become President of the combined company. Previously, Scholz worked at Houghton Mifflin Company, and also held management and software engineering positions at the Open Software Foundation, Interactive Systems Corporation, and NCR Corporation.

Martin Hensel, who founded Texterity in 1991 and has been at the forefront of the digital publishing industry for more than two decades, will advise the new company as part of his new consulting practice for publishers and media technology firms.

Texterity’s client roster includes Conde Nast, Meredith Corp., Oracle, Rodale, American Chemical Society, Harvard Business Review, IDG Communications, Crain Communications, and Entrepreneur.

In addition to developing digital editions of magazines, catalogues, and other publications, Texterity has strong expertise in building a mobile web reading experience and branded mobile apps for iPhone, iPad, Kindle Fire, and Android devices.

“With the scope of expertise and capabilities that our combined organization has, we now have products and services to meet the needs of the more than 18,000 magazine publishers in the market,” said Carl Scholz, President of Texterity. “We bring together a wealth of professional experience in management, engineering, sales, project management, customer support, and finance. There’s no question that we’re poised for dramatic growth.”

While digital magazine formats are extending the reach of print editions and have been a positive development for the industry, key to continuing to attract digital subscribers is to focus on making the medium as interactive and user-friendly as possible versus just putting content onto websites.

This acquisition is surely the first of many to come as CMS solution providers look to woo publishers; many of whom are seeing  rapidly declining interest (and sales) in their print editions and formats; to their platforms.