People
Natascha Morris joins The Tobias Literary Agency as literary agent where she will rep picture books, middle grade, and YA. She was previously a literary agent at Bookends.
David Graeber, 59, anthropologist and author of Bull***t Jobs, died on September 2 in a hospital in Venice. His publisher FSG writes, “We are deeply saddened by the news of David Graeber’s untimely death. Graeber’s path-breaking scholarship and political activism were focused on imagining new forms of human freedom. The impact of his work on our intellectual life and the progress of humanity toward a more just future has been felt across the globe.” FSG is publishing Graeber’s next book cowritten with David Wengrow, THE DAWN OF EVERYTHING: A NEW HISTORY OF HUMANITY, which is tentatively scheduled for publication in the fall of 2021.
Corporate
The battle for control of Lagardere continues, with major shareholders Amber Capital and Vivendi saying they will ask the courts to enforce their request for a special shareholders meeting, after Lagardere rejected the request earlier this week.
Lagadere said in a statement, “The Supervisory Board has examined the joint request by Amber Capital and Vivendi to call an extraordinary general meeting. It considers that the legal conditions required to diverge from the corporate schedule known to all shareholders are not presently satisfied. It reiterated that it is the guarantor of the Group’s corporate interest, its independence and its integrity. Accordingly, it has a duty to preserve the Group in a particular context where one of the shareholders requesting the meeting [Vivendi] is a direct competitor of Lagardère Publishing.” The company added, “It noted that the last general meeting was validly held on 5 May 2020, after several months of intense debate about the Group’s governance, and that there is no legitimate motive to urgently call a further general meeting.”
Amber and Vivendi now say that they will refer the matter of calling the meeting to the Paris Commercial Tribunal. They are seeking a vote on four board nominations, after Amber’s earlier attempt to reseat the board with a broader list of candidates was voted down in May, prior to their pact with Vivendi.