The SEC’s two investigations into accounting issues at Barnes & Noble have provoked at least one shareholder lawsuit, filed in New York State Supreme Court on Wednesday. In his complaint, David Shaev accuses the bookseller’s board and several of its executives of breaching fiduciary duties and an abuse of control. “Barnes & Noble has operated with deficient and inadequate financial reporting and inventory management systems since at least 2001,” Shaev said in his complaint. “These systems do not adhere to industrywide best practices and company internal audits have repeatedly shown them to be unreliable and subject to manipulation.” Later he […]
Archives for December 2013
People, Etc.: Smashwords and Scribd, Duck Commander “On Hiatus” for Anti-Gay Comments
Smashwords‘ catalog of over 225,000 ebooks will be incorporated into Scribd.com’s ebook subscription service. As part of the deal, the roughly 70,000 Smashwords’ authors and publishers will receive a free one-year subscription to Scribd’s service. Also, Oyster will include “select titles” from the Perseus Book Group in their subscription service. One of the 2013’s unlikely stars, Phil Robertson of the Duck Dynasty, will be “on hiatus” in the year to come. Following his anti-gay remarks in a GQ interview, the A&E network “has placed Phil under hiatus from filming indefinitely.” Robertson tried to ameliorate the situation with a formal statement, […]
Sales Rise At Scholastic, But Earnings Fall On Two Charges
Sales inched up at Scholastic in their fiscal second quarter, ending November 30, rising $9.7 million to $623 million. But operating income of $94.7 million was down 7 percent as the company wrote down $13.4 million on “legacy acquisitions” in the children’s publishing and distribution segment and took a $5.5 million one-time charge for “cost reduction and restructuring programs” as well. At the same time, Scholastic said it will exercise an option to purchase their headquarters building in Soho for $255 million before the end of the year. They say it “should provide a number of benefits, including enhanced free […]
People
Another executive will depart Penguin shortly. EVP of business operations Doug Whiteman will leave the company as of January 3 to become chief administrative officer of Acelero Learning, an early childhood education company focused on improving the delivery of Head Start services locally. Penguin Random House’s Madeline McIntosh wrote in a memo, “As much as we are all sorry to see him leave after thirty great years of outstanding contributions and service, this move will not come as a surprise to the friends and colleagues who know of Doug’s longstanding philanthropic contributions.” Leslie Stoker will be leaving Abrams, where she is […]
WME and Silver Lake Confirm IMG Acquisition
William Morris Endeavor and their private equity backers Silver Lake announced Wednesday morning they have finalized an agreement to acquire talent and sports agency IMG. WME’s co-ceos Ari Emanuel and Patrick Whitesell say in the release, “IMG has incredible strategic value to WME. The brand’s global reach, outstanding management team and leadership across sports, fashion and media are a strong complement to our business.” The announcement also notes that “Mubadala Development Company will be a minority investor in the transaction.” (It’s an investment vehicle of Abu Dhabi.) While the final price was not officially disclosed, multiple accounts had the winning bid […]
Apple’s Top Picks and Bestsellers, Google’s Lists, and Kobo’s Favorites
Apple has named a short group of “best books” for the year, picking George Saunders‘ Tenth of December as their best work of fiction; Bill Bryson’s One Summer as best nonfiction; Brandon Sanderson’s The Rithmatist as best YA; and Breaking Bad as the best “made for iBooks” title. The iBookstore has more top 10 lists, across about 20 categories. In general fiction and literature, Apple’s top 10 is: Tenth of December, George Saunders The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt Someone, Alice McDermott Enon, Paul Harding Dissident Gardens, Jonathan Lethem How to Get Filthy Rich In Rising Asia, Mohsin Hamid All That Is, […]