Barnes & Noble [BKS] announced this morning that the company will acquire the privately-owned Barnes & Noble College operation principally owned by Len Riggio for $596 million, or about $460 million net of the college unit’s cash on hand. One major reason for the combination is the emergence of e-books and BN’s renewed attempts to build their online offerings and compete with Amazon. As Riggio says in the announcement, “Although both companies previously thrived as separate entities, owing to distinctions in their product offerings, the definition of textbooks and trade books has become increasingly blurred. This trend will accelerate with […]
Archives for August 2009
People and Awards
Over the weekend Phoenix Books announced the death of company president Michael Viner, 64, on Saturday, following a battle with cancer. They note Viner was “widely credited with revolutionizing and reinventing the audiobook industry as the co-founder of Dove Audio.” At the Hugo Awards presented this weekend, Neil Gaiman won the prize for best novel for The Graveyard Book. Borders Group has named three vice presidents to lead their store operations: Mike Steele is zone vice president for the West Coast; John Melnick is zone vice president for the Northeast; Dave Marsico is zone vice president for the Midwest. The […]
Sales Slip at S&S As Income Is More than Halved
Sales fell 2.5 percent at Simon & Schuster in their fiscal second quarter, down $4.6 million at $181 million for the period, while OIBDA dropped by more than half at $8.1 million, down from $17 million a year ago. Straight operating income was $6.1 million, down from $14.6 million a year ago. The company says the sales decline was “principally reflecting the unfavorable impact of foreign exchange rate changes,” while the earnings hit was “largely driven by higher author royalties and restructuring charges of $2.2 million related to headcount reductions partially offset by lower employee-related expenses resulting from cost-savings initiatives.” […]
Summer Report Card
With earnings results announced from most of the publicly-reporting companies with trade publishing divisions, we’ve assembled a little chart of the recent summer school grades. The primary drivers of success in the current marketplace are either a) Stephenie Meyer or b) currency exchange. When underlying businesses are strong most companies will tell you that foreign exchange doesn’t matter that much to them but in a declining market the impact–both positive and negative–becomes more prominent. PublishersLagardere +10.4% (FX was marginal; rest of year comp will be lower due to Stephenie Meyer)Harlequin +8.7% (all FX)S&S -2.5% (“principally” FX)Penguin +11% […]
Auditors Raise Doubts on Borders UK's Future
According to accounts filed with Companies House, auditors of Borders UK, sold to Hilco by Luke Johnson and Risk Capital Partners earlier this summer, raised doubts about the ability of the book retailer to continue as a going concern, the FT reports. Ernst & Young, which signed off on the accounts going back to February 2, 2008 on July 31, said Borders UK “faced a number of uncertainties, including that it operated in a highly competitive sector, and the sales performance was difficult to forecast.” A significant quarterly rent cost, ongoing support needed from publishers and availability of credit insurance […]
Digital Friday: Free Ebooks as Trend; Harvard Business Review on Amazon vs. B&N; and More
The AP reports on publishers going out of their way to offer free e-books from established authors’ backlist in order to tempt buyers on frontlist items, even as they are quick to label such moves as an opportunity to experiment with pricing issues still a thorny topic. The top three Kindle bestsellers in recent days are James Patterson’s THE ANGEL EXPERIMENT, Joseph Finder’s PARANOIA and Greg Keyes’ THE BRIAR KING – all free, all available a few years earlier. “I like the notion of introducing people to one book, while promoting the sales of another,” Patterson said, adding that “thousands […]