When Barnes & Noble bought back Microsoft’s 16.8 percent stake in Nook Media earlier this month for $125 million in cash and stock, they gave Pearson an option to sell back their Nook shares as well. In a filing with the SEC Tuesday morning, BN announced they purchased Pearson’s stake on December 22 for $13.75 million and 602,927 shares of its common stock. The buyback is at the same reduced valuation as the Microsoft repurchase, down from the $89.5 million Pearson paid in 2012 for their 5 percent stake in Nook Media. The deal is what ceo Michael Huseby earlier termed a “tag-along right” that […]
Bookstores
People: Peter Wiley to Retire from Board Chair
John Wiley chairman Peter Booth Wiley announced that he intends to retire from that position as of September 2015, when his term expires, though he will maintain his board seat. Current director and former group president at Pitney Bowes Matthew Kissner has been nominated to take over as chair. Peter Wiley has held the position since 2002, when he took over from his brother Bradford Wiley II. While this breaks the Wiley family’s tenure at the top, he indicates that is temporary: “Although I am stepping down as Chairman after twelve years, the Wiley family remains committed to its leadership […]
Bookselling: New Locations for Anderson’s, Third Place Books, HugoBooks; Final Patterson Pledges to 81 Bookstores
Anderson’s Bookshop will open its third location in La Grange, IL in April, the Chicago Tribune reports, after signing a lease on December 5 for the former PNC Bank at La Grange Road and Calendar Avenue. “It’s the perfect place with a vibrant, established downtown area with lots of independent businesses and a wonderful business alliance that does all sorts of great events,” owner Becky Anderson told the paper, adding the new store will be similar to the other two retail locations, but stocked according to customers’ preferences. Third Place Books will also open its third location next year in […]
Briefs: Quick Publication of Torture Report, and Pop-Up Holiday Stores
Public Affairs told Time magazine last week that they had tried to work with the Senate Intelligence Committee to coordinate a trade book version of their 500-page summary version of their torture report, but the committee said it was “devoting its attention to getting the executive summary released.” Now that the report has been released, Melville House has said that it will publish a version of the report for trade paperback and ebook release on December 30. In the meantime, a free PDF version of the report is available here from the Senate committee’s website. Separately, a number of organizations […]
Retailers and Book Prices
Jeff Bezos said a lot of the expected things at the Ignition conference yesterday, a friendly interview conducted by Henry Blodget — whose Business Insider is funded in part by Bezos. The Amazon ceo is quoted widely for such standard remarks as, “Books, in my view, are too expensive. You know, $30 for a book, is too expensive.” (Bear in mind the book he means is one that Amazon pays about $15 for and then decides what to charge.) To us what’s missing is some context. Bezos also “want[s] to see millions of people living and working in space” and is […]
People, Etc.: Einstein Thompson Split, and More
Susanna Einstein and Meg Thompson will dissolve the Einstein Thompson Agency after the new year as they have “mutually and amicably decided to strike out on their own” after eight years working together, first at LJK Literary before forming their own agency. The Thompson Literary Agency and Einstein Literary Management will each open for business in January 2015, with both agencies continuing to work with Sandy Hodgman at Hodgman Literary for foreign rights. At Public Affairs, publicity director Jaime Leifer takes on the additional role of vp, associate publisher, reporting to Clive Priddle, recognizing her “growth as a leading voice […]