Barnes & Noble’s stock was having a rough day in Thursday morning trading and then briefly plunged in the afternoon following an SEC filing by large shareholder Ron Burkle. What he reported to the SEC is that two of the entities he controls–Yucaipa American Alliance Fund II and Yucaipa American Alliance (Parallel) Fund II–are going to “distribute in-kind” their shares to the funds’ owners. (It’s difficult to tell from Burkle’s filing how his 19.74 percent block of Barnes & Noble stock is spread among multiple entities, each of which is credited with substantial interest in same pool of shares.) The market’s […]
Bookstores
Legal Briefs: 17 More States Join Amended eBook Pricing Complaint; ‘Godfather’ Sequel Proceeds in Escrow; and More
Late last week 16 more states, as well as the District of Columbia, joined the amended ebook pricing complaint against Apple and the ‘Agency Five’ publishers, bringing the number of states involved in the lawsuit to 32. Texas and Connecticut initially filed the complaint at the same time as the DOJ; among the new plaintiffs are Virginia, Indiana, New York, and Wisconsin. Page One Bookstore in Albuquerque, NM, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February 2011, said it expects final approval of a reorganization plan to move forward as a going concern “shortly,” according to the Albuquerque Journal. Owner […]
Tattered Cover One Step Away from Airport Stores; Politics & Prose Travels
A Denver City Council committee unanimously sent to the mayor and full council for approval the proposal to give the Tattered Cover the concession for four bookstores under their own name and one combined store paired with Hudson News at the Denver International Airport. The stores would open in early 2014. Washington, DC’s Politics & Prose bookstore has launched a literary travel tour program, working with DC-based Academic Travel Abroad (which works with the Smithsonian, National Geographic, and various alumni associations, among others). “Part tour, part roving literary symposium, each trip will be led by an expert in the field,” including store […]
People, Etc.
Sara Nelson has been named editorial director, Amazon.com books, responsible for “leading our editorial vision for books in the print and Kindle bookstores” a company spokesperson told PW. She was most recently books editor at O Magazine, and prior to that was editor-in-chief of Publishers Weekly. Nelson, who will work out of New York starting next month, said in a statement: “I am thrilled to have the opportunity to expand the content on Amazon.com and to bring my voice to this Web site visited by millions of passionate readers.” (We’ve noticed many people in publishing mistakenly think she’s working for […]
Books-A-Million Announces Formation of Special Board Committee for Buyout As Shareholder Sues
Books-A-Million formally announced the creation of a special committee of independent directors that will evaluate and make a recommendation regarding the Anderson family’s bid to take the company private. The committee, comprising Albert C. Johnson and J. Barry Mason, has retained King & Spalding as its legal counsel and is in the process of retaining financial advisors. In the same statement, BAMM’s board of directors again cautioned shareholders and other interested parties that the board “has only recently received the proposal and no decisions have been made…. There can be no assurance that any definitive offer will be made or […]
People: Kendall to Lead Mulholland
Joshua Kendall will join Little, Brown on May 29 as the new editorial director of their Mulholland Books suspense fiction imprint, reporting to Judy Clain. Previously Kendall was senior editor at Viking/Penguin, and fills the slot vacated by John Schoenfelder, who left to work for film producer Scott Rudin. At Open Road, Allison Underwood has been promoted to senior marketing manager and Lara Selavka moves up to associate interactive producer. In addition, Iris Blasi joins as marketing manager, reporting to Underwood. She was most recently digital media manager with Hilsinger-Mendelson East. Ingram has relaunched their online search and order platform […]