Yet another Canadian icon lost as Harlequin snapped up by U.S. Media giant News Corp.

A Canadian cultural icon is being sold into foreign hands.

No, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has not unloaded the CBC onto Fox.

Harlequin Enterprises Ltd., the world's best-known publisher of bodice-ripper romance novels, has been sold by Torstar Inc., the Toronto Star's holding company, to HarperCollins Publishers, a subsidiary of media mogul Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. (which does in fact own Fox).

Torstar said in a news release Friday some proceeds of the $455-million all-cash deal will be put towards paying down its debt and the rest retained for potential future investments.

“Harlequin has been an important part of Torstar over the past 39 years and we are very proud of the global success it has achieved,” CEO David Holland said, adding that the decision to sell was difficult.

"HarperCollins is a very well-respected publisher with a tremendous track record of success and will be a good home for Harlequin. The sale will benefit Harlequin in the years ahead by providing the company, its terrific management team and its employees with exciting opportunities to continue to grow.”

Harlequin sales had dipped in recent years, the Globe and Mail reported, but it gave Torstar a stable revenue base to offset the turmoil besetting the volatile newspaper business.

A lot of people might not even realize Harlequin was a Canadian company. Over the years we've seen a lot of quintessentially Canadian firms bought up by outsiders.

Famed distiller Seagram is owned by France's Vivendi. The Bauer, Cooper and CCM equipment most kids strap on to play hockey is now produced under the umbrellas of big sports-gear makers such as Nike and Reebok.

Stelco, the last major Canadian-owned steel producer, fell into the hands of U.S. Steel in 2007.

Even Hudson's Bay Co., founded in 1670 under a British royal charter, was purchased by a U.S. company about a decade ago. Its subsidiary, discount chain Zellers, disappeared in the last couple of years, its locations turned into Target stores.

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Harlequin, founded in 1949 and under Torstar's control since 1975, is the world's leading publisher of women's fiction. The term Harlequin Romance has become a byword for the entire genre of female-friendly fiction, like Jell-O is to desserts and Kleenex is to tissues.

Harlequin publishes several different romance series but all seem to feature spunky, intelligent women involved with intriguing, often powerful men of action.

The Globe's Michael Babad used what he figures is stereotypical Harlequin style to describe the takeover.

"Oh, yes, the bankers groaned, in their throaty way.

"Yes, there, the lawyers moaned, passion mounting as they pointed to where to sign the deal."

While none of its books could be confused with Anna Karenina, what Harlequin lacks in literary heft it makes up for in volume. Torstar says it publishes more than 110 titles a month in 34 languages sold in 102 markets. It has a stable of 1,300 authors.

The deal, which is subject to regulatory approval, includes a commitment to keep Harlequin's head office in Toronto, which employs 350 of its 1,000 worldwide staff.

HarperCollins already has a romance imprint called Avon Romance, Bloomberg News reported. The Harlequin acquisition gives it a presence in several foreign markets, underscoring News Corp. CEO Robert Thomson's strategy of "globalization and digitization," putting more of the media giant's content online.

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“This is really part of our overall play in those areas,” Thomson told Bloomberg. “It also signals the book business is an important part of the company.”

HarperCollins CEO Brian Murray said the company sees a strong future for romance fiction, The Canadian Press reported.

"[Romance readers] tend to be voracious readers," he said. "They read sometimes as many as 50 to 100 books a year. I don't see that as going away any time soon.

"Certainly our whole industry is going through a transition from print to digital, so the business will change but I think the reading of romance books is not going away."