Archives for June 2022
Barnes & Noble Education Splits Top Job In Two, Renews Standstill with Investor
Ahead of reporting their fiscal fourth quarter later this week, Barnes & Noble Education announced that it has separated the roles of board chair and ceo, effective immediately. Lead independent director Vice Admiral John R. Ryan now serves as board chair, with Mike Huseby remaining as ceo. Additionally, Outerbridge Capital Investment’s chief investment officer Rory Wallace has been nominated to join the board at the next annual meeting in September and the investment firm renewed its standstill “cooperation agreement” first struck two years ago, when BNED explored and then abandoned a sale of the company. (Outerbridge currently holds 2 of […]
Macmillan Closed For Security Incident
Macmillan is closed today for an unspecified “security incident” that occurred on Saturday. They write in a statement: “Macmillan became aware of a security incident that impacted our servers and internal systems. While we immediately responded to secure the threat, our work is ongoing. Out of an abundance of caution, we have closed our offices Monday, June 27 to allow us time to continue our investigation, and are working diligently with third-parties to return to a secure working environment.”
Booktopia’s Value Has Plunged
It took Australia’s leading online bookseller Booktopia years to pull off a public offering of shares in late 2020 — and in retrospect, it probably never should have done so. Shares have been sinking since last summer, accelerated by their surprise warning of low profits expected for the current year in early May. Since late August 2021, the company’s market cap has evaporated, going from $411 million (AU) down to about $26 million now. The Sydney Morning Herald ran a long “investigation.” While they note that, “In recent weeks, Booktopia has been laying off staff through redundancy rounds” — and […]
People 6/24
Debra Linn has been promoted to director of marketing at Algonquin/Workman.
Imprints: Allida Books
Harper Children’s and Clarion Books have launched Allida Books, led by Newbery Medal-winning author Linda Sue Park and Clarion vp, editorial director Anne Hoppe. The imprint, “named for the Korean word that means to inform, announce, or make known,” will launch in early 2023 and has the mission “to encourage marginalized writers and artists to explore the stories they are most passionate about and to craft narratives that defy expectations,” a release states. “I want Allida to be creator-centered, because I feel strongly that when artists are supported in making work from their deepest passions, kids get better books,” Park […]