The state of Maryland did not file an appeal of District Court of Maryland Judge Deborah L. Boardman’s clear and forceful imposition of a preliminary injunction in February blocking implementation of the state’s library ebook lending law. In that ruling the judge found that the plaintiff AAP “will likely succeed on its claim that [Maryland’s law] is preempted by the Copyright Act.” In a March 28 letter, Judge Boardman ordered the state “to show cause by April 11, 2022, why the preliminary injunction should not be converted to a permanent injunction.” Maryland needs to come up with a new argument […]
Pearson Rejects Revised Apollo Buyout; Shareholders Will Have to Wait for Management’s Promises
Private equity firm Apollo Global’s third offer to buyout Pearson, made on March 28, was “unanimously rejected” by the board, which turned down 884.2 pence per share (or roughly $8.8 billion). The board says the offer “significantly undervalued the Company and its future prospects,” though the stock market has generally disagreed with that assessment: The shares had been trading for between 600 and 650 pence a share for the few months prior to the offer, and have not sustained at the offer levels since late 2018 and early 2019. Share are down about 5 percent today on the news, trading […]
McGuigan Sues Former Foundry Bookkeeper for Fraud
The recent non-binding mediation between former Foundry Media partners Yfat Reiss Gendell and Peter McGuigan failed to result in any resolution to their legal dispute, so their claims and counterclaims return to the court for litigation. (McGuigan originally sued Gendell, alleging criminal embezzlement from Foundry, and Gendell countersued, alleging defamation and unprofessional and abusive behavior.) The most recently revised schedule called for discovery to end June 13, with motions for summary judgment due by July 26. Separately, on Tuesday McGuigan filed a new civil suit on behalf of both himself and Foundry Literary + Media, expanding his original allegations to […]
More On the Control of Scholastic: Interesting History, But Don’t Expect Insight Into the Future
It seems that a number of good journalists and publications are going to waste a lot of energy raking through gossip about the late Dick Robinson and current controlling owner and chair of Scholastic, Iole Lucchese. The pretense is to inform about what might happen next at the venerated children’s publisher: “Now there may be a showdown brewing over billions of dollars in kids’ fare,” Vanity Fair puts it in the teaser for the latest version of the story, appearing in their April issue. But the claim is disingenuous since there is, and has been, no news or updates about […]
Private Equity Firm Veritas to Acquire Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for $2.8 Billion
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt announced on Tuesday morning an agreement to sell the company to investment firm Veritas Capital for $21 a share, with Veritas paying approximately $2.8 billion. (At the end of their third quarter, the company had approximately $317 million in long-term debt.) Bloomberg first reported on the negotiations over the holiday weekend. The board says, “The decision to enter into an agreement with Veritas was the result of a deliberate and thorough strategic review process” that included “discussions with several potential strategic and financial bidders.” The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter. Bloomberg had reported […]
Private Equity Firm Veritas Reportedly Negotiating to Buy Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
After reporting last month that HMH was exploring a sale, Bloomberg now reports that private equity firm Veritas Capital is bidding to take the education publisher private. “A final decision hasn’t been made and other bidders may emerge for the Boston-based company,” the sources are said to have indicated. Veritas bought Cambium Learning Group in 2018 for $900 plus the assumption of debt (and in 2021 refinanced the debt with $2.15 billion from Blackstone).