Investors who hold more than 5 percent of a company’s stock traditionally need to declare any sales to the SEC within 48 hours, so today should be when we learn whom among the small set of concentrated Barnes & Noble investors took the money on Monday after the announcement of the Microsoft deal. So far only Jana Partners has filed, indicating that the firm sold a million of their shares near the top, at $24.42 a share. But they are still holding almost 10 percent, or approximately 5.96 million shares. Given the unprecedented trading volume on Monday of nearly 30 million […]
Archives for May 2012
eNews: Target Confirms Kindle Removal; Coehlo’s 99-Cent Backlist Promotion; Bundled Nooks With HMH Textbooks; and More
Target confirmed on Wednesday the report we mentioned in Wednesday’s issue indicating that that 1,800-store chain will stop carrying Kindle devices. Company executives wrote to vendors in January to protest moves such as Amazon’s price check app: “What we aren’t willing to do is let online-only retailers use our brick-and-mortar stores as a showroom for their products and undercut our prices.” Target was first big mass merchant to start stocking Kindle products in 2010. Wal-Mart, Best Buy and Staples are among the big retail chains that still sell Kindle products in their stores. Earlier this week Paulo Coehlo announced on […]
Tech Investor Takes Minority Stake In William Morris Endeavor
Tech-focused private equity firm Silver Lake has made an investment in William Morris Endeavor and taken what is reported as a 31 percent stake in the agency. While the top management of WME remains unchanged, Silver Lake managing partner Egon Durban will join the executive committee of the agency, and will help to form a new technology advisory council. WME co-ceos Ari Emmanuel and Patrick Whitesell said in a joint statement: “While we have already taken significant strategic steps to transition our business to the new digital media landscape, we are excited about the financial strength and technology expertise Silver […]
People, Etc.
At William Morrow, Peter Hubbard has been promoted to executive editor. Edward Benitez has joined Random House, Inc. as director, Spanish-language sales. Michele Karlsberg has joined Bywater Books as publisher. A recent winner of the Publishing Triangle’s Leadership Award, she was one of the founders of Amethyst Press and then ran Michele Karlsberg Marketing and Management. Jane Rogers‘ THE TESTAMENT OF JESSIE LAMB won the Arthur C Clarke award, the UK’s top science fiction prize. First published by independent Scottish press Sandstone, Harper Perennial is set to release a trade paperback (and ebook) in the US on May 15.
Judge Relieves Two Settling Publishers From Discovery
Judge Denise Cote has agreed for now that pending settlements with state attorneys general across the country with Harper Collins and Hachette Book Group might alleviate them from class action suits. The judge issued a stay, until July 11, freeing those two publishers from any depositions and discovery by the class action attorneys. The companies are said to be aiming towards settlements with all 50 states, and have argued that such a broad settlement could effectively cover all potential claimants who are part of the class.
eNews: More from Lynch on Microsoft’s Nook Investment; Target Will Stop Stocking Kindle Devices On Apparent “Conflict of Interest”
The Kindle Fire may have been Target‘s top-selling tablet device last Thanksgiving, but as of this month it appears the retail chain will no longer stock it, or any Amazon e-reading product, due to an apparent and unspecified “conflict of interest.” According to an internal memo obtained by The Verge, Target “will be removing Amazon hardware from its locations starting this month” and “shipments of Kindles themselves will cease as of May 13.” (In fact, if you search for “kindle” on Target’s website, no results show up at all.) It’s not clear as to what the perceived conflict of interest […]