CBS reported strong third quarter results after the close of the market on Tuesday, but sales at their Simon & Schuster unit fell 4.5 percent, down $10 million to $210 million, as OIBDA rose $1 million to $39 million. CBS said “strong growth in digital book sales was more than offset by lower print book sales.” That digital growth was not as strong as in the past, though; digital sales increased only 20 percent compared to the same period a year ago. (In the second quarter, digital was up 44 percent compared to the prior year; in the first quarter […]
Archives for November 2012
Under Fire For Business Model Change, Flat World Says “After Analyzing Our Fall Results, It Was Necessary”
Flat World Knowledge vp Michael Boezi posted a letter to customers about their recent decision to abandon free browser-based access to their textbooks. They write: “As we struggled with the decision, we realized the timing would be an issue for instructors who had made their spring book selections based on free access. We understand your disappointment and frustration. But after analyzing our fall results, it was necessary to implement the change effective January 1, 2013.” He says their “business is viable and growing” though the previous statement makes it sound like they are under some stress, and adds “we stubbornly […]
Quarto Dissidents Were Helped By Options Purchase; Leaver Calls for Unity
There’s at least one additional clue to what tipped the scales in the Quarto shareholder vote that removed Laurence Orbach from the board Wednesday: Harwood Capital, representing the leading dissident shareholders, indicated in a November 6 regulatory filing that they acquired over 2 million options on Quarto’s stock, expiring next month, that conveyed voting rights on an additional 10 percent of shares–giving their group 29 percent of the votes. Additionally, former partner Robert Morley–thought to be voting with Orbach and the board–switched positions and built up his own stake, helping to give the dissidents almost 55 percent of shareholder votes. New […]
Indigo Falls on Lower Book Sales and Delayed Devices
Canada’s dominant bookseller Indigo reported a 5.9 percent decrease in sales of $185.6 million for the fiscal second quarter. Though the company sold their stake in Kobo, they still blame “a delay in the planned launch of the new Kobo devices” as the primary cause of the revenue drop. They claim “book sales for the quarter were down only modestly” yet the superstores sales comps were down 6.5 percent, and small-format store comps fell 2.2 percent. Their operating loss of $5.9 million was much better than a year ago–but that’s because they had a major writedown against Kobo’s goodwill last […]
Orbach Is Ousted from Quarto In Shareholder Vote
At this afternoon’s special shareholder meeting of The Quarto Group in London, company founder and longtime chairman and ceo (as well as 14% shareholder) Laurence Orbach was removed as a director of the company and replaced with Aurum Press founder Tim Chadwick. Quarto’s very lightly-traded shares closed up 2.5 percent in London this afternoon, on volume of just two thousand shares.
Popular Accounts of Pending EC Agency Settlement Lose Sight of Primary Effect–Which Is the UK Only
In another bit of clean-up, yesterday’s Reuters report–which simply reaffirmed that the mid-September offer from Apple, Hachette, Harper, Macmillan and Simon & Schuster to settle the European Commission investigation into the introduction of agency ebook pricing on terms very similar to the Department of Justice settlement in the US is likely to be approved–has added to the misunderstanding rather than clarified it. Reuters declares “that decision would hand online retailer Amazon a victory in its attempt to sell e-books cheaper than rivals,” which is echoed and expanded on in other press accounts. What’s missing is the understanding and acknowledgement that […]