In Tuesday’s conference call with investors, Barnes & Noble ceo William Lynch tried explaining the decline in digital content growth a couple of different ways, which are not obviously consistent with each other. On the one hand, per our reporting, publishers reported “a bit of a deceleration of the growth overall in the e-book market [more than a bit, actually] which was to be expected.” On the other hand, Lynch underscores that digital content growth is heavily dependent on new device owners filling up titles: “consumers fill up their lockers and those first two to three months are vital as […]
Archives for August 2012
Amazon Launches Kindle Store in India
Amazon officially launched its Kindle store in India Wednesday, which will include more than 1 million titles and Kindle Direct Publishing options for authors. Amazon will also sell the bare-bones version of its Kindle devices for R6,999 at Croma retail stores across India. “We are proud to launch this new Kindle store for Indian customers – offering Kindle book purchases in rupees and the ability to buy and read the work of many great Indian authors,” vp Kindle Content Russ Grandinetti said in the release. “In addition, we are excited to work with Croma to make Kindle available at retail […]
People: Christopher Little Joins Forces With Curtis Brown
The Christopher Little Agency has entered into a new affiliation with Curtis Brown, effective immediately. The Bookseller reports that Little himself will continue to operate independently, but Curtis Brown will now take responsibility for administering related contracts and selling clients’ translation rights. Little said in a statement that he is “delighted with this arrangement as it allows both me and my team the flexibility to expand the creative arm of my agency. We have a lot of new work in progress and announcements will be forthcoming.” Curtis Brown chairman Jonathan Lloyd added: “I am thrilled to be working with Christopher […]
Books-A-Million Second Quarter Sales Rise As Losses Narrow
Books-A-Million reported second quarter earnings for the period ended July 28, and for the third straight quarter sales rose — up 14.9 percent (or $19.6 million)–to $120.4 million compared to a year ago, due to the expanded store base that now comprises 255 outlets. The company recorded a net loss of $0.9 million for the quarter, an improvement from the $2.9 million in losses a year ago. Store comps were also up slightly, at 0.5 percent, compared to the second quarter last year. BAMM ceo and president Terence Finley characterized the general improvement in sales as “reflect[ing] the contribution from […]
Corporate: Bertelsmann Finalizes Company Legal Changes; Book Comps Up at Hastings
Bertelsmann has finally made good on changing the company’s overall legal structure to SE & Co. KGaA, which is often used for businesses with a family-style ownership and structure, from AG (a privately-owned joint stock company.) In a brief announcement Bertelsmann stressed the change was an “identity-preserving change of legal form” which won’t change their ownership structure and corporate structure, or anything for the company’s employees. But it could make it possible for Bertelsmann to raise capital by issuing shares to the public, without giving those public shareholders any meaningful control in how the company is run. Back in March […]
Barnes & Noble Q1 Earnings Boosted By Retail, But Nook Losses Widen
Barnes & Noble did something they haven’t done for a while in their just-reported fiscal first quarter: They actually exceeded analysts’ pessimistic earnings expectations, with a reduced net loss of 78 cents per share (or $41 million), versus the predicted 96 cents a share. And they showed positive EBIDTA for the quarter–just $4 million, but much better than a $24 million loss a year ago. Also, actual bookstore book sales continued to improve, despite a forecast last quarter that those comps would decline in fiscal 2013. But that’s about it for the good news. The bad news is that the […]