By Wednesday evening Barnes & Noble admitted to customers that the “serious network issue” we reported on Tuesday was indeed “a cybersecurity attack, which resulted in unauthorized and unlawful access to certain Barnes & Noble corporate systems.” Previously, the company had only said they were “investigating the cause.” As we had suggested, the company also now confirms the bookseller was “made aware” of the attack back on Saturday, October 10, and systems have been impaired since then. On Thursday morning BN executive Jackie DeLeo sent an email to publishers as well. The effects were so sweeping, as we previously described, […]
Archives for October 2020
No Fair, But Abundant Deals
As indicated in our early look at the first three weeks of post-Labor Day dealmaking in the US, transactions have remained strong in the five weeks and one day that we measure every year as the pre-Frankfurt Book Fair period. Here are the updated results, now with pretty charts. Total deal volume was up Pre-Frankfurt US deal totals have been consistently dead flat for the past five years — but this year, they spiked to their second-highest total in the past decade. Overall reports were up 11.5 percent over last year (81 more deals). And this year’s count was just […]
People, Etc.
Alicia Clancy has been promoted to senior editor at Lake Union Publishing. Simon & Schuster Children’s has announced the expansion and reorganization of the digital marketing department, creating dedicated teams aligned with their social verticals. In the teen category, Emily Ritter has been promoted to senior manager, digital & social marketing, and Annika Voss to digital & social marketing associate. In kids’ books, Kate Bouchard has been promoted to digital & social marketing associate. Yasleen Trinidad will join in the newly created position of associate content manager, digital marketing. Ebony LaDelle has been promoted to director, marketing at Harper Children’s, continuing to […]
Arnault Again Ups His Stake in Lagardere
French billionaire Bernard Arnault made another modest purchase of Lagardere stock on October 14, adding approximately 2.2 percent of shares outstanding. Arnault’s companies now hold just over 15 percent of shares (and 16.93 percent of voting rights), and company ceo Arnaud Lagardere owns 7.3 percent of the public shares. In late September, Arnault had made his first direct investment in Lagardere, a 5 percent stake. The new purchase came just a day before a French court is due to decide on whether investors Amber Capital and Vivendi have the right to demand a special shareholders meeting to vote on board […]
Time to Vote
It is your right and your responsibility to vote, and people across the spectrum seem to agree that this is a critical election for our nation. The pandemic has made voting more complicated than ever, and many factors have made voting more time-consuming than ever. With early voting now underway in almost every state, we asked a variety of companies of scale in our industry from around the country about their policies to provide employees paid time off to participate. In addition, some companies also told us about special policies for volunteering to work the polls — “for which there […]
Pearson Sales Down 10 Percent in Q3
Pearson announced third quarter and nine month sales results for the period ending September 30, 2020. Sales were down (10) percent for the quarter, which the company deemed “an improving trend” — with the heaviest declines in international (down 26 percent) and North American courseware/higher ed (down 15 percent). Online learning rose 32 percent during the quarter. For the nine months, overall sales have been down 14 percent, “largely reflecting the continuing impact of COVID-19 and test centre and school closures in Global Assessment and International, and expected declines in North American Courseware.” The company says it’s “on track to […]