In interviews following up on Indigo’s deal to sell Kobo to Japan’s Rakuten, Indigo ceo Heather Reisman made it clear that “over the next year, this business will need in excess of $100 million to take it to where this industry is going, and we just cannot play in that league for that amount of capital.” Kobo ceo Michael Serbinis thinks they will need even more investment than that: “Certainly the capital needs in the next couple of years, without revealing too much about strategy, is in the hundreds of millions. And whether a hundred gets you to 6 months […]
Archives for November 2011
A Burst for Barnes & Noble
In a day when the overall market was down more than 3 percent, Barnes & Noble’s shares worked up nicely during the day Tuesday and then took off like a shot right after 3:00. Shares finished the day up almost 14 percent, at $13.68, and have continued to trade up this morning, now above $14 a share–their highest point since August. With no obviously discernible reason, the pop was likely driven by some kind of Wall Street rumor or expectation that the company could be back in play. At 1:00 yesterday, Liberty Media announced Barnes & Noble would present at […]
Trading Updates from Bertelsmann and WH Smith
Today is Bertelsmann’s turn for a brief, European-style third quarter trading update, with no breakouts by division. If you strip out the recent quarter by itself, sales of 3.575 billion euros were up 3%, and operating EBIT of 355 million euros was up 36 million euros, or 11 percent. For the year-so-far, sales are up slightly, and operating EBIT is down a little, with both of those categories performing better in the third quarter than earlier in the year. Release In the UK, WH Smith said in a brief update of their own that High Store sales declined 5 percent […]
People: Edugyan Wins Giller, and More
HALF BLOOD BLUES by Esi Edugyan (Thomas Allen) has won the 2011 Giller Prize, less than a year after Edugyan’s original publisher Key Porter Books suffered from financial difficulties that led to its bankruptcy this fall. There are currently 23,000 copies of the book in print in Canada and Thomas Allen publisher Thomas Crean told Quill & Quire “Tomorrow morning we’re going to be pushing the button again…I don’t quite know what the number is going to be, but it’s going to be upwards of 20,000.” In the UK, Sam Humphreys will join Michael Joseph as publisher at the end […]
Bookselling: BN Asked Justice to Investigate Microsoft; Australia Prepares to Reduce Import Ban to 14 Days
In documents filed with the International Trade Commission as part of the patent-infringement lawsuit brought by Microsoft, Barnes & Noble indicated that over the spring and summer they appealed to the Justice Department to investigate Microsoft on anti-trust grounds. “Microsoft’s willingness to bully small players with expensive litigation raises a substantial barrier to entry in any market in which it claims dominance,” general counself for BN Eugene DeFelice wrote, the WSJ reports. “Microsoft’s exorbitant licenses for its patents entrench the dominant players in the relevant markets because those players can afford to take a license, while small players cannot.” WSJ […]
Kobo Sold to Japan’s Rakuten for $315 Million
eBook start-up Kobo is being sold to Japanese internet giant Rakuten for $315 million on a fully-diluted basis. Kobo will continue to operate as a stand-alone entity, based in Toronto, Canada. Kobo’s majority shareholder Indigo Books & Music said they expect to receive $140 million to $150 million in proceeds, though they told shareholders “the account gain cannot be determined at this time.” Those proceeds are almost equal to Indigo’s total market cap as of yesterday. As you would expect, their thinly-traded stock jumped by over 50 percent this morning, though at $10.50 a share the price is still well […]