The UK offers two grain-of-salt stories today. In the first, the Guardian has suddenly noticed that leading bookselling chain Waterstone’s has been struggling and declares that “rebel shareholders” want HMV to consider selling the unit if margins do not improve soon. Who are these rebels and what kind of stake do they hold? Um, they cite one anonymous shareholder, “”Although Waterstone’s accounts for around a quarter of HMV’s turnover, it has a perfectly viable business without books. The day of reckoning is fast approaching.” And a second unnamed “investor” (which is different how from a shareholder?) says, “another investor said: […]
