With Barnes & Noble all but private, the nation’s second largest bookselling chain Books-A-Million may go completely private, as the controlling stakeholders at the Anderson family have offered to acquire all outstanding shares. It is a modest offer–at $3.05 per share in cash, it values the entire company at $48.8 million, and is a 20 percent premium over the closing price last Friday. But shares traded as high as 3.50 a share in early April, and within the past year have been as high as about $4.75 a share, which led ZPR Investment Management president Mark Zavanelli to tell the WSJ […]
Archives for April 2012
Corporate: Scholastic Expect More Earnings Thanks to Hunger Games Sales; Secound Round Bids for Flammarion
Scholastic significantly increased its earnings guidance for fiscal 2012, which ends on May 31, to exceed $3.40 a share, “based on stronger than anticipated sales of The Hunger Games trilogy following the March 23 movie release.” Previously, the company projected annual earnings of between $2.60 to $2.90 per diluted share, while the company’s prior guidance for revenue and free cash flow remains unchanged. The sale process for French publisher Flammarion by its Italian owner RCS Media continues, with a number of reports indicating that five publishers have submitted second-round bids starting at 300 million euros. France’s Actes Sud and Albin […]
People, Etc.
Amber Guetebier has been promoted to editor at Red Wheel Weiser Books and Conari Press. She was formerly assistant editor. Chad Harbach won the Book-of-the-Month Club’s First Fiction Award for The Art of Fielding; Tea Obreht won the Quality Paperback Club’s New Voices Award for her debut novel The Tiger’s Wife, and Conor Grennan received the QBPC’s nonfiction New Visions award for Little Princes: One Man’s Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal. Author Toni Morrison is among the 13 new recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom–along with former University of Tennessee women’s basketball coach Pat Summitt, whose latest memoir was just announced. […]
BN Puts Nook and College Business Into New Subsidiary, With Microsoft Investing $300 Million
The future of both Barnes & Noble and the digital reading business took new shape Monday morning as the bookseller announced the creation of a new subsidiary, into which they have transferred all of the Nook and BN College units (comprising “their digital device, digital content and college bookstore businesses.”) Microsoft is investing $300 million in that subsidiary–called simply NewCo for now (a standard corporate placeholder before the real name is finalized)–in exchange for preferred shares representing a 17.6 percent stake. That gives the newly-formed unit an approximate valuation of $1.7 billion (with BN’s share valued at $1.4 billion) — far more than […]
First Quarter Sales Rise Modestly at Penguin; Promises “Robust Defense” Against DOJ
Pearson issued a brief first quarter trading update, in advance of their annual meeting. Sales rose 3 percent overall in the period, at £1.16 billion, up 11 percent on a constant-exchange-rate basis. The company expects profits in the first half of this fiscal year to be lower than a year, with income “heavily weighted to the second half” and comparisons that include the previous sale of their stake in FTSE International. They expect Penguin to “perform in line with its industry this year” (which usually means low growth). The unit “will benefit from its consistently strong publishing schedule, which is […]
People, Awards, Etc.
Sourcebooks has promoted Barbara Briel to svp, chief operating officer, “responsible for oversight of Sourcebooks’ daily operations, including driving performance measures and strategic planning activities throughout the company.” She joined the company in 2004 as accounting manager, and in 2007 was named vp, director of administration and finance. Additionally, Nick Martinelli has been promoted to web development manager; Danielle Jackson moves up to senior publicist; Jessica Zulli is now ebook production coordinator; Kristin Zelazko has been promoted to senior production editor for the Fire and Jabberwocky imrints; William Riley moves up to senior graphic designer; and Jodi Welter is now graphic […]