Random House Inc. announced Thursday that it has purchased Multnomah Publishers Inc., a Sisters-based publisher of Christian books.

The deal was finalized Wednesday, terms of which are not being released, said Stuart Applebaum, Random House spokesman. Both companies are privately held and Multnomah representatives deferred all questions to Random House.

Multnomah operations will move to Colorado Springs, Colo., to be integrated with WaterBrook Press, Random House’s first evangelical Christian publishing line.

WaterBrook is an editorially autonomous division of Random House’s Doubleday Broadway Publishing Group. Both WaterBrook and Multnomah will maintain their distinct editorial identity, Applebaum said.

It is unclear how many of Multnomah’s roughly 65 full-time employees will be offered jobs in Colorado Springs, but Applebaum said Multnomah workers will see ”business as usual” for now.

”The transition to Colorado Springs will be at least six months, maybe 12 months, from now,” Applebaum said from Random House headquarters in New York City. ”We will be adding people from Multnomah to the new WaterBrook Multnomah operation, but we don’t have a precise number (of original Multnomah workers) yet.”

Applebaum said Multnomah’s current information technology, financial and administrative positions will not be transferred to Colorado because Random House provides those functions from New York. Editorial and marketing jobs, however, are expected to continue in Colorado.

Multnomah staff will be updated as the process continues, Applebaum said.

The news is a big loss for Sisters, said Cheryl Mills, Sisters Chamber of Commerce executive director.

Multnomah is the third-largest year-round employer in Sisters, which is significant for such a small town, Mills said.

”Obviously, it’s going to have an effect on the particular folks who lived here and worked for Multnomah,” Mills said. ”Hopefully, what we’ll be able to do in the meantime is attract some other employers to fill that gap.”

Multnomah’s name isn’t going away in the deal; customers will still see books published with its imprint, Applebaum said.

”They will be editorially independent of WaterBrook and Random House,” Applebaum said, adding that publishing decisions will be made in Colorado Springs, not New York City.

Applebaum said Random House has been interested in Multnomah for the past decade as Random House sought ways to expand its Christian publishing line.

”(We) have had conversations with (Multnomah president Don) Jacobson over the years that could have taken on a number of forms,” Applebaum said. ”Only (Wednesday) were we able to consummate that by our purchase of Multnomah.”

Jacobson announced July 10 that he intended to sell the company that he and his wife, Brenda, founded in 1987. The company produces more than 100 new titles each year, with an active backlist of 600 books.

Despite publishing best-sellers like Bruce Wilkinson’s ”The Prayer of Jabez” in 2000, Multnomah has experienced some financial pains. In March, the company laid off seven employees amd in January 2004 it eliminated 15 positions.

Jacobson will be a consultant during the transition and integration, according to a written statement from Random House.

”The decision to sell Multnomah was a difficult one,” Jacobson said in the statement. ”In my new consultant capacity, I will do all I can to make the efforts ahead as smooth as possible for everyone.”

Steve Cobb, president and publisher of WaterBrook Press, will lead the WaterBrook Multnomah programs. Cobb helped found WaterBrook Press in 1996. WaterBrook publishes more than 75 new titles each year with an active backlist of 500 books.

Applebaum boasts that Random House Inc. is the world’s largest English-language trade book publisher, based on its 3,500 titles published annually in the United States and its $2 billion in yearly revenues.