Children's book company Andromeda Oxford, which closed last November with the loss of 19 jobs, has been bought by the London-based Brown Reference Group.

Like Andromeda, it is a book packaging company, creating and selling reference books to publishers worldwide.

It has bought assets relating to more than 100 Andromeda reference books, including Encyclopaedia of Aquatic Life and the Encyclopaedia of Oceans.

The deal will transform Brown, raising turnover to about £8m.

A spokesman said the re-employment of staff was not part of the deal. "We have just bought the assets," he said.

Andromeda Oxford, which was based in the Vineyard, Abingdon, had completed work on several illustrated reference books which have yet to be published. Many of its staff were freelance.

Joint administrator Stanley Coltman, of Tenon Recovery, said the estimated net book value of the business and assets was £1.5m.

Before going into administration, Andromeda had already lost a third of its workforce, including its managing director, who left in 2002, and its finance director, who quit in May 2003.

Andromeda was set up in the 1980s and had already needed to be saved before by City investors.