On the fourth and final day of testimony in Ron Burkle’s Yucaipa Delaware court suit challenging Barnes & Noble’s poison pill, board director Michael del Giudice testified that any investor holding more than 20 percent of the book seller’s shares decide to vote against the poison pill at the annual shareholder meeting in November, that move would itself would trigger the pill. “If they have an agreement or understanding to do so, that’s the problem,” said Del Giudice. But when pressed to define what, exactly “the problem” was that could trigger the pill, Del Giudice was more vague: “I don’t […]
Briefs: 2 Million Copy First Printing for ‘The Secret’ Follow-up; Poetry a Hard Sell in E-Form; ; And More
Atria has announced a 2 million copy first printing for THE POWER, Rhonda Byrne’s follow-up to THE SECRET, which will be published next month.AP The AP also looks at why poetry has proven to be “the least adaptable to the growing e-book market”: no one’s quite certain how to figure out how to keep the integrity of a poem intact in digital formats.AP This week’s NYT trend piece: nanny lit isn’t going away, it’s just changed, “showcasing complex and imperfect nannies whose personal stories intersect with thorny larger questions about race, class, immigration and parenthood.”NYT The estate of Adrien Jacobs […]
People and Announcements
Stacy Boyd has been promoted to Senior Editor, Silhouette Desire. She was most recently with Harlequin’s Feature and Custom Publishing Program. Edward Orloff has joined McCormick & Williams as an agent after six years with The Wylie Agency. John Groton will be joining the National Book Network as VP, Sales effective August 2. Previously he held senior and executive sales positions at Simon & Schuster, Random House, and most recently Nicholas Brealey Publishing. Sandra Homer has joined The Bukowski Agency as the new Manager of Contracts and Translation Rights. Effective January 1, Fordham University Press titles will be distributed and […]
Borders Will Sell Paperchase for $31 Million in Debt-Reduction Measure
Borders has agreed to sell its Paperchase stationery unit for $31 million to Primary Capital, a UK-based private equity firm. Under the agreement, set to close next week, Borders will continue to purchase and sell Paperchase products in its stores, and use $25 million of the proceeds to reduce the amount outstanding under its $90 million term loan credit facility, as specified under the terms of the loan agreement reached this past April. The deal comes just a month after Borders laid off an unspecified number of Paperchase staff, its third round of job cuts in 2010, and six years […]
BN Trial Zeroes in on Possible Burkle-Aletheia Alliance
On day three of the case brought before Delaware court by Ron Burkle’s Yucaipa challenging Barnes & Noble’s poison pill, testimony from expert witnesses finally delved into what’s been openly speculated about for months: if Burkle is able to wage the proxy fight he wants at the upcoming annual meeting this fall, it would hinge on an alliance between Yucaipa, and its more than 19% stake in BN, and the next-largest stockholder, money management firm Aletheia Research & Management, with a more than 16% stake in the company. Testifying on behalf of Yucaipa, CEO of MacKenzie Partners Inc. Daniel Burch […]
Waterstone’s to Freeze All Staff Pay
On the heels of another dismal quarterly report, Waterstone’s has confirmed that staff pay will be frozen this year. “No pay awards are being made across HMV Group this year as we continue to contain our costs,” a spokesperson to The Bookseller, revealing little more about the reasons for the across-the-board cost cuts. The move comes just a day after the bookstore chain announced it would open a movie theater in its flagship (and very large) Piccadilly branch after it signed an agreement with Curzon Artificial Eye.The Bookseller