As expected, Delaware Chancery Judge Leo Strine approved the settlement of the lawsuit brought by Barnes & Noble shareholders over the deal to purchase BN College from the Riggios. Judge Strine agreed in part with BN’s request to reduce the share of the proceeds going to the lawyers–originally set at $11 million of the $29 million settlement–though he reduced the award to $7 million rather than halving it as BN asked. The value of the remaining $22 million in settlement funds will be garnered by the bookseller’s own treasury, worth about 37 cents a share. (There is no award to […]
Bookstores
BN College Shareholder Suit Settlement Goes Before Judge
This Tuesday a Delaware Court of Chancery holds a hearing on the proposed settlement of shareholders’ suits against Barnes & Noble over the handling of the purchase of BN College. The settlement calls for Len Riggio to forgo $22.75 million of the principal on a $150 million note that the company still owes him for the transaction, and he will sacrifice $6.3 million of the way-above-market interest that BN is paying on the note. (While borrowing costs are near record lows, the company is paying 10 percent interest.) BN has objected to the proposal that the attorneys get $11 million of […]
Kobo Will Take Over From Google as ABA’s eBook Retailer
Kobo will reestablish a presence in US retail booksellers that they have lacked since Borders liquidated under an agreement with the American Booksellers Association that takes over from the soon-to-be-cancelled Google eBooks relationship. The WSJ says the new agreement will be effective in October (ahead of Google’s scheduled termination of their affiliates in January 2013); the ABA simply says it will launch “this fall,” with approximately 400 stores expected to participate. The ABA held conversations with a variety of potential new partners, said to include such providers as Copia and the soon-to-launch Zola Books (which is enrolling its own independent […]
Bookselling: Indies Coming to Astoria, Queens; Titles, Inc. Owner Florence Shay, 90, Dies; And More
The Queens neighborhood of Astoria had been without a bookstore since December, when Seaburn Bookshop closed. But the impending arrival of Astoria Bookshop, owned by Lexi Beach, and the possible expansion of children’s bookstore The Story Nook, owned by Faye Skandalakis, from a section of a kids’ boutique to a freestanding store suggests the neighborhood, and the borough, will see more book shopping traffic, according to the NY Daily News. Beach, a 31-year-old account manager for eMusic.com (who formerly worked at Simon & Schuster), is still raising funds for the Astoria Bookshop, which she hopes to open next year, but […]
BN Tries to Explain
In Tuesday’s conference call with investors, Barnes & Noble ceo William Lynch tried explaining the decline in digital content growth a couple of different ways, which are not obviously consistent with each other. On the one hand, per our reporting, publishers reported “a bit of a deceleration of the growth overall in the e-book market [more than a bit, actually] which was to be expected.” On the other hand, Lynch underscores that digital content growth is heavily dependent on new device owners filling up titles: “consumers fill up their lockers and those first two to three months are vital as […]
Bookselling: Inkwood Seeks New Owners, St. Mark’s Hits Fundraising Goal
Tampa bookstore Inkwood Books is the latest well-known indie to search for new ownership. (RJ Julia Booksellers in Connecticut and The Book Stall in Illinois are among others looking for buyers.) Co-owner Carla Jimenez is ready to retire after 20 years at the store, though her partner Leslie Reiner is open to staying on, but does not want to serve as sole owner. “I could do it,” she tells the Tampa Bay paper, “but it wouldn’t be as much fun.” Tampa Bay New York’s St. Mark’s Bookshop has successfully passed their $23,000 fundraising goal Tuesday afternoon, which is supposed to […]