Amazon recently filed suit in the Northern District of California against a number of people and companies “that falsely claim affiliation with Amazon services, including Amazon Publishing and Kindle Direct Publishing.” The company asserts in the complaint: “Defendants run an international scam operation that deceives authors into paying for fraudulent and materially substandard services under the guise that they are affiliated with Amazon by using logos that are confusingly similar or nearly identical to Amazon’s distinctive trademarks. While Amazon has already taken swift action to shut down many of Defendants’ websites, Defendants—at least ten individuals and eight entities—continue to register […]
People 10/31
Bookselling: More New BNs
Tomorrow the chain opens new stores in Marietta, GA and Salem, OR. Last week they opened their new store in Cheyenne, WY.
Simon & Schuster Officially Sold to KKR
After the close of the market on Monday, Simon & Schuster confirmed the completion of their sale to KKR for $1.62 billion. S&S ceo Jonathan Karp wrote to employees: “I believe our relationship with KKR will enable us to become an even greater version of what we already are: a company that strives for–and succeeds at–attracting and keeping a roster of the most talented authors, with a workforce of dedicated and highly motivated professionals; a pre-eminent publisher, for all kinds of readers, in all formats; a company that takes risks, seizes opportunities and cherishes innovation in its publishing and business […]
Refreshing
We have been working away on the big PublishersMarketplace.com redesign since June and over the weekend we went live with some of the biggest and best improvements yet. Everything Dealmakers, from individual pages to the hundreds of customizable lists, now has a new look. Each Dealmaker page features an enhanced “info box” on the left; simplified deal metadata; visualizations of Notable Titles; and color charts to track — and click through to — deals across our sub-categories. That “info box” will now show a picture or logo when available, along with a brief bio. For people who have a posted […]
Gendell and McGuigan Agree to Payment of Some Commissions
There has been one modest point of agreement in the long-running legal disputes between former Foundry Media Partners Yfat Reiss Gendell and Peter McGuigan. The parties agreed on the least contentious issue before the court: Payment to McGuigan of almost $500,000 in commissions earned from 2020 through 2023. Additional commissions of almost $200,000 from 2016 to 2019 are still in dispute, as are the larger claims and counter-claims between the two. The court has scheduled an evidentiary hearing on December 20 regarding the period still in dispute, and to assess damages, if any, for the failure to previously approve those […]