Derek Stordahl is promoted to evp, Bloomsbury USA with responsibility for Bloomsbury’s performance across their academic and trade businesses; he was previously head of sales. Cristina Gilbert is promoted to vp, sales and marketing for Bloomsbury’s US adult and children’s divisions. Alex Glass has formally announced his new literary agency, Glass Literary Management, formed late last year after he left Trident Media Group, where he worked for 13 years. He will continue to concentrate on nonfiction (including prescriptive, narrative, memoir, sports, pop culture, and celebrity); adult literary and general fiction; and children’s fiction. Heather Flaherty joins the Bent Agency as an agent […]
Germany’s Txtr Files for Insolvency
German ebook solutions and services provider Txtr filed for insolvency proceedings with a German District Court, which has appointed a provisional administrator to oversee the sale of the company’s assets. People familiar with the situation say that Txtr had been exploring a sale in recent months, and it’s now expected that their assets will be sold from within the bankruptcy estate. In a statement, Txtr said it is working with Olswang Restructuring Solutions and “will continue to search for an acquirer,” indicating that “a number of companies have expressed interest in txtr’s business, technology, organization and user base.” For now, the company says, “there is […]
Courier Will Weigh New Bid from RR Donnelly
Following Courier Corp.’s definitive merger agreement with Quad/Graphics, on Tuesday morning competitor RR Donnelly made a higher, unsolicited buyout bid, offering $23 a share — $2.50 more per share (or approximately $15 million higher) than the Quad/Graphics payment. Already facing the typical shareholder “investigations” over the Quad/Graphics merger, Courier announced Wednesday morning that the board will “conduct negotiations and discussions with Donnelly.” They have already made the logical conclusion that Donnelly’s offer is “reasonably likely to result in a ‘Superior Proposal'” as covered in their Quad/Graphics agreement. Courier can break off that deal but would have to pay a $10 million termination […]
Announcements: Oyster Adds Harry Potter, R&L Buys Chase’s
eBook subscription service Oyster announced on Wednesday morning that they have added the Harry Potter series to their collection, along with 3 Hogwarts Library titles. Amazon first licensed the Potter books from Pottermore for borrowing in May 2012, originally on an exclusive basis “at least until 2014,” for inclusion in their Kindle Owner’s Lending Library across five languages. When the company launched their broader ebook subscription service Kindle Unlimited in July 2014, the Potter books were featured prominently in that program as well. Chase’s Calendar of Events, a fun, quirky property databasing all manner of holidays, daily observances and commemorations that […]
Apple Beats Strong Expectations with Record First Quarter Results
Apple reported first quarter earnings on Tuesday afternoon after the close of the market, facing expectations for another strong quarter of revenues and iPhone sales following the release of the iPhone 6 models. They exceeded those expectations with record results, as sales rose 30 percent to $74.6 billion (yielding profit of $18 billion), with iPhone sales of 74.5 million units. The stock is up over 7 percent in Wednesday morning trading. They sold 21.4 million iPads (compared to 26 million the same quarter a year ago), reaching 260 million iPads sold since their launch in 2010. Services, the line item in […]
Knopf Has US Version of Authorized Stieg Larsson Millennium Sequel
David Lagercrantz’s authorized sequel to the late Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy has been due for publication in August 2015 since it was first announced in late 2013 — and this week the originating publisher Norstedts in Sweden confirmed simultaneous release of the book, WHAT DOESN’T KILL US, in at least 35 countries this summer. What had been unclear was whether Knopf would continue as publisher of the series in North America, since they were under license from MacLehose Press in the UK — a unit of Quercus, which was sold to Hachette UK shortly after the new book was announced. But […]