When Perseus Went to Court A court filing seeking approval for Perseus’s offer with respect to PGW clients notes that AMS has accounts receivable of $147.5 million — and $72.5 million in inventory that they are now considering an asset. They also cite “valuable collateral including AMS’s interest in foreign subsidiaries, fixed assets and intellectual property.” Some quick math will tell you they own a lot less than they owe, particularly once the fire sale starts. Wells Fargo, for their part, collected $3.9 million in additional “forbearance fees” just for extending their credit line last summer and fall. The filing […]
Lunch for Tuesday, January 23
AMS Updates The bankruptcy court rejected Simon & Schuster’s efforts to reclaim inventory shipped to AMS over the 45-day period prior to their bankruptcy filing. The judge reinforced that the secured creditors — e.g. the banks — have first claim on the inventory, the SD Union Tribune reports. There is a hearing set for January 31 on “Advanced Marketing’s proposal to establish procedures to sell all or part of the company or to find an investor willing to put up new capital or refinance its debt.” Separately, in reporting results for the quarter, Meredith takes a $3 million pre-tax charge […]
Lunch Weekly for Monday, January 22
FICTION Debut Laurie Viera Rigler’s CONFESSIONS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT, a literary homage, comedy, and exploration of identity, destiny, and the nature of time, that tells the story of a contemporary thirty-something LA woman and Jane Austen fan who wakes up inside the body of an Englishwoman in Austen’s time, to Trena Keating at Dutton, in a significant deal, at auction, for two books, by Marly Rusoff of Marly Rusoff & Associates (NA). Bestselling author Nathan McCall’s fiction debut THEM, about gentrification in Atlanta, to Malaika Adero at Atria, in a significant deal, by Faith Childs at Faith Childs […]
Lunch for Friday, January 19
As Expected, Ostrowski will Lead Bertelsmann Arvato division head Hartmut Ostrowski has been selected as the new chief executive of Bertelsmann, taking over at the end of the year from Gunther Thielen. Thielen will remain with the company as chairman of the company’s supervisory board. The FT notes, “the elevation of the two confidants of Ms Mohn has been an open secret in Gütersloh, Bertelsmann’s home town, as she has worked to increase her family’s influence and focus the print-to-TV group on its old strengths.” The appointment is seen as reinforcing a conservative strategy for the company. The FT quotes […]
Lunch for Thursday, January 18
Deal News Among the many new reports: Laurie Viera Rigler’s debut CONFESSIONS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT; India’s Minister of Commerce and Industry on the country’s economic rise; Adam Langer’s memoir; Backspace founder Karen Dionne’s thriller; and still dozens more. At PublishersMarketplace.com, members can get complete access to deal news and deal searching all the time: live every day as reports come in; nightly in an optional e-mail; complete and organized in full round-ups every week; and searchable anytime in all kinds of powerful ways (members run about 1,500 deal searches daily), through a unique database tracking over 21,000 transactions […]
Lunch for Wednesday, January 17
Woolworths Buys Bertram Woolworths — yet another troubled UK retailer — is buying book wholesaler Bertram for 29 million pounds. They will add it to their Entertainment UK division, their home entertainment and book wholesaling unit that acquired Total Home Entertainment last fall for 20 million pounds. They say it will “significantly enhance EUK’s book wholesale capabilities and will enable the company to further develop its retail and online customer base.” Announcement Borders Reorg, Now Available on DVD Greg Josefowicz had limited success after filling the Borders executive suite with his grocery store colleagues from Jewel Osco, but now new […]