Last week Woolworths officially filed for bankruptcy is here, with distributor EUK going into receivership along with the Woolworths’ stores division. Improbably, book distributor Bertram’s appears to have been spared, even though it was always listed as part of the EUK division. Deloitte, which had been advising Woolworths’ lenders over the past month, was appointed administrator. Bertram’s, along with Woolworth’s 2Entertain joint venture with the BBC, is reportedly operating normally for now, though it will be sold as part of the liquidation of Woolworths assets. Bertram’s says on their web site, “Bertram’s management has been in contact with Deloitte, which […]
Archives for November 2008
Redstone "Sells" Midway for Tax Loss
As part of the restructuring of his heavily indebted assets Sumner Redstone’s holding company National Amusements will transfer their 87 percent stake in Midway Games to investor Mark Thomas for about $100,000, along with transferring that unit’s $70 million of debt. (It had a market value of $30 million on Friday.) But NA “is expected to realize a 2008 tax loss of more than $800 million, according to a person familiar with the situation.” On the larger question of how he will restructure $1.6 billion in debt, the WSJ adds that “the Redstones are discussing securing their outstanding debt with […]
Buckely's Forthcoming Family Memoir
Christopher Buckley discusses his forthcoming book LOSING MOM AND POP, due for release in May. Discussing it in VF’s January issue, Buckley says: “I honestly had no intention of writing about them [his parents]. But I’m a writer, and when the universe hands you material like this, it would seem an act of conscious omission not to do something about it. It spilled out of me. I wrote it in 40 days – no biblical associations intended.” He notes, “This book is going to land hard in some quarters . . . It’s a book about two very complex people. […]
Cruise and Amazon Deny Pressure on Scientology Book
Amazon spokesperson Patty Smith and a representative for Tom Cruise both deny that the Amazon UK removed from sale John Duignan’s THE COMPLEX under pressure from the actor after he visited the company’s Seattle headquarters. The book critical of Scientology was taken off of Amazon UK after an unidentified “noncelebrity” alleged that the book’s “false claims” were defamatory. “UK law gives us no choice but to remove the title from our catalog,” Amazon had said.NYDN item
Newspaper Picks
The NYT has picked and picked and picked. The Book Review posted its list of 100 Notable Books for 2008, and critics Michiko Kakutani and Janet Maslin selected personal top 10 lists. Only 5 of the critics’ picks are on TBR’s list which, as usual, features a number of books by New York Times’ staffers (and at least one NYT company employee at the Boston Globe), if they do say so themselves. It’s less numerically pretty for children, where the Book Review came up with eight notable books. Here are the critics’ lists, asterisked where they overlap with the Book […]
Philly's Oldest Indie to Close
Robin’s Bookstore, started and “believed to be Philadelphia’s oldest independent book seller, is calling it quits at the end of January.” With sales falling “as much as 15 percent in recent months,” owner Larry Robin says business has gone “from bad bearable to bad unbearable.”Inquirer