Sales Slow at BN Barnes & Noble reported “lower than expected first quarter sales results” and foresees a weak “overall retail environment,” leading the company to lower full-year guidance for same-store sales for the year from slightly positive to slightly negative. On a comparable-store basis, first quarter BN store sales dropped 1.5 percent at $1 billion, while BN.com sales were up 7.2 percent to just under $100 million, with overall sales at $1.2 billion for the quarter. The company reached an agreement in principle with California over “its long-standing dispute regarding the collection of sales and use taxes on sales […]
Archives for May 2008
Lunch for Wednesday, May 21
One e-Book Per Child for 2010? The One Laptop Per Child program held a workshop in Cambridge, MA at which founder Nicholas Negroponte unveiled his vision of their second generation machine — which looks a lot more like a foldable e-book. Negroponte told the group, “The next generation laptop should be a book.” Laptop Magazine reports, “The design will provide a right and left page in vertical format, a hinged laptop in horizontal format, and a flat, two-screen continuous surface for use in tablet mode.” They are hoping to produce the new machine for 2010, and also aim to reduce […]
Lunch for Tuesday, May 20
Arvato’s Dohle Picked to Run Random House This morning Bertelsmann chief executive Hartmut Ostrowski confirmed that Markus Dohle, 39 — who runs Arvato Print, part of the division previously headed by Ostrowski — has been picked to “succeed” Peter Olson as chairman and ceo of Random House. Olson “will be leaving Bertelsmann of his own initiative May 31, 2008. This decision was approved by mutual agreement with the Supervisory Board. It will allow Peter to pursue new challenges in the academic sector. He is in discussions for a position as a senior faculty member at a U.S. university.” Ostrowski tells […]
Lunch for Monday, May 19
Lawrence Hill Takes Commonwealth Prize Canadian Lawrence Hill’s THE BOOK OF NEGROES, about a West African girl sold into slavery in 18th-century South Carolina who eventually returns home, won the overall Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. Tahmima Anam of Bangladesh won the Best First Book prize for A GOLDEN AGE. Bloomberg Weinstein Announces Alchemist Film Project Harvey Weinstein announced at Cannes that he will personally produce a film version of Paulo Coelho’s bestselling THE ALCHEMIST. The project had languished at Warner Bros. for years, with Laurence Fishburne eventually acquiring the rights along with A-Mark Entertainment. They are thought to have sold rights […]
Lunch Weekly for Monday, May 19
Deal Reports Just e-mail to deals@PublishersMarketplace if you aren’t using the online form linked below. Report a deal using the online form The Key As usual, the handy key to our Lunch deal categories. While all reports are always welcome, those that include a category will generally receive a higher listing when it comes time to put them all together. “nice deal” $1 – $49,000 “very nice deal” $50,000 – $99,000 “good deal” $100,000 – $250,000 “significant deal” $251,000 – $499,000 “major deal” $500,000 and up FICTION Debut Damian Tarnopolsky’s GOYA’S DOG, a satirical novel about the attempts of […]
Lunch for Friday, May 16
Paper Reports on Borders and Paperchase The Telegraph “reports” that Borders has appointed JPMorgan Cazenove to “conduct a strategic review of Paperchase,” their UK-based stationery chain, with the expectation of a sale. It’s not clear, though, if the paper is sharing any actual news. (Earlier this month the NYT “reported” that Morgan Stanley was handling the sale of Direct Group North America, without realizing that news was first noted in mid-March.…) Both Morgan and Merrill Lynch were named as Borders’ bankers in March. Borders spokesperson Anne Roman notes that “when we publicly announced that the company was exploring strategic alternatives, […]