At Lagardere, sales at the book publishing division fell 46 million euros in the third quarter, down 7.4 percent overall (and 4.1 percent on a currency neutral, like-for-like business). Results for their international portfolio were quite mixed. Sales at HBG USA were up 11 percent, “particularly with the success of Nicholas Sparks’ The Longest Ride.” But even with the second two volumes of the Fifty Shades trilogy and Dan Brown’s Inferno, their big French division suffered large drops in both “general literature” and education. The education segment remained weak in Spain as well, were sales declined modestly. The UK group […]
