Germany’s largest bookstore chain Thalia is facing the same challenges as major booksellers in English-speaking countries, with parent company Dougles reducing their forecast EBITDA for the current fiscal year by a range of 15 to 30 percent, driving shares down sharply. The company warned that they will incur unspecified “expenditures for restructuring at Thalia” and blamed “the structural challenges in the entire books sector” for the earnings reduction. One German analyst told Bloomberg the company needs to make clear the restructuring costs and “and in general has to provide solutions and measures to get rid of the structural problems at […]
Bookstores
Bookselling: Kepler’s In Search of New Business Model As Clark Kepler Looks to Retirement
Clark Kepler, 53, intends to retire from Menlo Park, CA-based bookstore Kepler’s after 32 years as manager, with the store’s 30 employees “very much involved in the change process to redefine Kepler’s and their jobs, so the final outcome of the new model will be determined by all of the stakeholders, including the employees.” Kepler’s nearly closed for good in 2005 until they raised nearly $1 million from investors and enrolled thousands of “supporting members,” but the store is still “barely breaking even,” despite having expanded event store space (including charging for events), among other changes. The Almanac News reports […]
Daniel Tisch Reports 5.1% Holding in Barnes & Noble
The Tisch family is the latest group of wealth investors to take in interest in Barnes & Noble. Daniel Tisch filed the required SEC form to disclose that he now holds a 5.1 percent stake in the bookseller (or nearly 3.1 million shares). A little fewer than half the shares are held by his personal investment company, TowerView, while the rest of the stake is controlled by Four Partners, another investment company owned by all four Tisch brothers and run by Thomas Tisch, though Daniel Tisch has “sole voting power and sole investment power” over the entire holding. Tisch has […]
Clean-Up In the Lunch Aisle
A couple of updates/corrections to stories from last week. Regarding Barnes & Noble‘s original purchase of Sterling Publishing, we have all been using the incorrect figure of “approximately $115 million,” which is what BN said in their SEC filing on January 23, 2003. In the bookseller’s printed annual report to shareholders, they explain that the real cost was $122.593 million (which include cash proceeds of just over the reported $115 million, but also $7.415 million “to reduce short-term debt.” Additionally, contrary to longstanding informal impressions within the business, someone with direct knowledge of the sale says that BN’s $122.6 million […]
The Market’s Many Minds On Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble threw a lot of different, and in some ways contradictory, data points at the market yesterday, and reactions (as well as articles) are all over the map. The general confusion is well-earned, and a lot rests on how you tell the story. Here are some things to keep in mind: The Stock Plunged–But It Also Took Off At its low point yesterday, about 5 minutes after the market opened, Barnes & Noble’s stock was down more than 30 percent, to about $9.40 a share. In today’s volatile environment, that’s what happens when you miss or lower your […]
Barnes & Noble Reduces Expectations On Shortfall In Simple Touch Sales; A Sterling Sale Is Far Along
It’s already another fascinating year for Barnes & Noble, which surprised Wall Street with a number of post-holiday announcements. The success of their Nook Tablet, “which has exceeded expectations,” came at some cost to their less expensive eInk device, “with a shortfall in the expected sales of NOOK Simple Touch.” They say “the company over-anticipated the growth in consumer demand for single purpose black-and-white reading devices this holiday.” Primarily as a result of that Simple Touch shortfall, BN reduced their guidance to investors, projecting fiscal year sales of between $7.0 billion and $7.2 billion, EBITDA of $150 to $180 million, […]