Endeavor Group has once again filed registration documents with the SEC for an initial public offering of shares in their hodgepodge of debt-laden assets. The filing comes after the company abandoned their previous IPO at the last minute in September 2019. Tepid interest and a weak market for IPOs at the time led them to reduce expectations from $600 million in proceeds down to $400 million. As part of the filing, the company delineated the “significant impact” of Covid-19 on their business, hitting the representation segment hardest of all. 2020 sales were $3.479 billion — down from $4.571 billion in […]
Archives for March 2021
Up for Discussion
We have a number of new experiments and refinements on the way in April, starting with a new user forum at PublishersMarketplace: Discuss!. You should be able to click through any time you are already logged in to PM. The emphasis as we get started will be hosting regular AMA sessions with a variety of trade publishing veterans, with a focus on serving the growing number of authors who use PublishersMarketplace. (If you’re interested in joining us a featured guest, please write to robin@publishersmarketplace.com.) We’ll also use the Discuss! forum to help answer questions and share knowledge about how to […]
New CEO Promises “The Continued Development of Hachette Livre”
On Monday, Hachette Book Group USA ceo Michael Pietsch wrote to employees about the departure of longtime Hachette Livre/Lagardere Publishing ceo Arnaud Nourry, “I’m deeply saddened by this news. In the fifteen years that we have been part of Hachette Livre, Arnaud has strongly championed HBG, our employees, and our authors, while also advocating for a healthy publishing ecosystem. His vision and integrity, combined with his keen understanding of the publishing business on a global scale and the cultural importance of books and writers, have been core to our successes…. We will miss Arnaud enormously.” At the same time, Pietsch […]
Tencent’s Ebook Outlet Launches North American Platform
China Literature, the ebook venture of the Chinese chat and gaming giant Tencent, has launched a North American platform, featuring more than 200,000 original English-language titles as well as 1,000 works translated from Chinese. (All My Beasts Are Legendary and Rebirth: Pampered Wife’s Counterattack are the two titles currently featured on the front page’s top carousel.) Called WebNovel, the platform seeks to “transplant the strategy proven successful in China to the new market, to build a content eco-system where we could build on our IP,” China Literature’s head of international business Sandra Chen, told Reuters. In China, the ebook platform […]
January AAP StatShot Shows Adult Hardcover Leading Overall Trade Growth
The AAP released their January StatShot of publisher-reported sales, showing continuing strength: Adult and children’s trade sales were $628 million for the month, up from $506 million in pre-pandemic January, one year ago. The biggest gains were in adult hardcovers, with sales $138.6 million, up sharply from $91.5 million last year. Much of that gain was thanks to lower returns, which were down substantially across both adult and children’s formats, continuing the pandemic trend. Still, shipments of adult hardcovers gained a healthy 16.6 percent, at $173.9 million. Ebooks continue to hold their pandemic gains, at $87 million for the month, […]
People, Etc.
Picks GMA Book Club chose Of Women and Salt by Gabriela Garcia for April (as noted yesterday, a recent Buzz Books selection that was also featured in our virtual BB Editors Panel). The Costco Pennie’s Pick for the month is Remember by Lisa Genova. Events The London Book Fair has backpedalled on their promise again. In an “update statement,” LBF director Andy Ventris says, “We promised to update the trade about plans for the 2021 Fair by the end of March. Given the continuing uncertainty around international travel, we are currently planning for all scenarios and will update with a final […]