Just in time for the holidays is this unique gift for publishing junkies or the perfect memento for your shelves of the year’s major event: Our comprehensive record of THE TRIAL: The DOJ’s Suit to Block Penguin Random House’s Acquisition of Simon & Schuster is now available in print as well. With the encouragement and assistance of our friends at Ingram Content Group and Lightning Source, this 1,194-page, 8.5 x 11 book maximizes the capabilities of print-on-demand — and weighs in at an impressive 6.7 pounds. The text was updated to include Judge Florence Pan’s full 80-page opinion and our […]
People: Weinberg to Lead Workman Publishing
Current evp and publisher of Perseus Books Susan Weinberg will take over as publisher of the Workman Publishing group on January 1, after Dan Reynolds retires. The publishers of Workman Adult and Aristan, Workman Calendars, Algonquin, Storey, and Timber Press will all report to Weinberg, along with marketing and publicity, and the group creative director. Weinberg says in the announcement, “The spirit of independent publishing at Workman is wonderfully familiar to me from my years at Perseus. I’m immensely proud of the contributions of the Perseus publishers and their teams to HBG and am excited and energized as I shift my […]
Nash Returns to Booktopia Board As Outgoing Chair Highlights Challenges
As set in motion earlier this year, former ceo of Australian online bookseller Booktopia Tony Nash was re-elected to the company’s board — and at Nash’s instigation, directors Fiona Pak-Poy and Judy Slatyer resigned from the board. Director Su-Ming Wong resigned in September, and current non-executive chair of the board Chris Beare will step down once a new chair is appointed. The company is still looking for a new ceo as well. In his chairman’s address to the annual meeting, Beare indicated that, “Current year trading (fiscal year 2023) volumes and revenues are down around 20 percent from the same […]
People 11/23
Scholastic Buys Back Fewer Shares Than Allocated
Scholastic announced preliminary results of their “modified Dutch auction” launched in late October to boost the company’s stock price. Authorized to buy up to $75 million in stock, approximately 534,000 shares were tendered and will be purchased at $40 a share — costing the company about $21.35 million. As a result, the stock now trades just above $41 a share on the open market. Also in finance, following the termination of Penguin Random House’s deal to acquire Simon & Schuster, Bertelsmann is planning to float €750 million in senior unsecured notes, which will be used in part to buy back […]
Zombie eBook Class Action Suit Returns
The fanciful class action suit against Amazon and the five largest trade publishers, alleging that publishers were willing and direct participants in Amazon achieving monopoly-level control of the ebook market, is back in an amended version. At the end of September, US District Judge Gregory Woods had dismissed the case, but without prejudice, allowing the plaintiffs to refile, though it’s not clear why this new version should go any further than the previous suit. Federal Magistrate Judge Valerie Figueredo previously had concluded that the plaintiffs gave “no plausible explanation for why the publishers would have been motivated to participate in […]