On Monday Barnes & Noble [BKS] filed another revised prospectus for the upcoming spinoff of Barnes & Noble Education [BNED], telling investors just how much stock they will receive: For every single share of Barnes & Noble Inc. stock owned, investors will 0.632 shares of BNED common stock. Ultimately the stock market will determine what the two entities are “worth” once separated. But based on the current stock price and market capitalization, that implies something like a $640 million market cap for BNED and a $1 billion market cap for BKS (not including the preferred shares). In the filing, however, BN’s […]
Archives for June 2015
People, Etc.
Sara Sargent will return to Harper Children’s on July 13, in the new position of executive editor, reporting to Kate Jackson. She will acquire teen, middle grade and picture book fiction and nonfiction titles “created from or around digital and social media content. Sargent was most recently at Simon & Schuster, Robert Bolick is joining the International Baccalaureate (IB) as head of digital publishing & language services. After many years at McGraw-Hill Education, most recently he has been director of digital business transformation at the British Standards Institution. Awards The ALA presented their Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence to Anthony Doerr for All the Light We Cannot See for fiction, and […]
People: A Harry Potter Play, and More
JK Rowling announced on Twitter that she has written a play — Harry Potter and Cursed Child — that will open in London’s West End next summer. She calls it “a collaboration” with writer Jack Thorne and director John Tiffany, along with singer-songwriter Imogen Heap. Tickets will go on sale this fall, and the production will be stated at the Palace Theatre. The theater’s website says the play “will explore the backstory leading up to Harry’s parents untimely death at the hands of Lord Voldemort.” Rowling writes, “I’ve had countless offers to extend Harry’s story over the years, but Jack, […]
Barnes & Noble Finishes with Soft Quarter
Barnes & Noble reported fourth quarter fiscal 2015 results on Thursday morning, more or less in line with analysts’ expectations, losing $19.4 million (37 cents a share) on sales of $1.184 billion. Sales fell in all three divisions and were down $138 million (or 10.4 percent) compared to a year ago — though about half of that gap is due to the inclusion of an extra 14th week in final quarter a year ago, with that extra week having comprised $72 million in sales at the BN and BN College retail units. The extra week affects comparisons for both the […]
People, Etc.
Antonella Iannarino has left the David Black Agency, where she was an agent and website and social media manager for authors, after eight years to launch AI Strategic, offering consulting services to authors and companies for developing their online presence through social media, websites, ebook publishing and brand strategies. She may be reached at antonella@aistrategic.com. Claire Payne will join Parragon as senior director of mass market sales on July 3. Previously she was senior director of sales at Dalmatian Press. In the UK, literary agent Anita Land has split with partner since 2000 Georgina Capel to set up a new agency, the Bookseller […]
Scribd Takes Over Librify; Google Ventures Backs Personalized Children’s Publisher
Scribd has acquired social reading ebook retail platform Librify. Founded in 2013 by Joanna Stone Herman, Ingram Content Group Ventures was among Librify’s funders, and their primary retail relationship was with Target. Scribd ceo Trip Adler said in a statement, “We value Librify’s focus on the social reading experience and the great work they’ve already done within reading communities. This move is a natural extension of the existing Scribd product and something we, and our readers, have wanted to explore more deeply.” Herman adds, “we set out to create a book club like reading experience for the digital age and we’re excited […]