Barnes & Noble‘s plummeting stock price of the past week or so – no doubt helped by a report that the company’s sale prospects appear to be dimming — reversed course yesterday, as shares rose 5 percent to 9.71 on renewed rumors the company might be taken over by private equity. Supply chain sources also indicate that BN has made and/or shipped approximately 3 million Nook Color units, with sales topping 1m in North America for the fourth quarter of 2010 and between 600,000 and 700,000 units between January and the end of February this year. The same sources also […]
Bookstores
Former Washington Post Reporters Will Buy Politics & Prose
Nearly a year after announcing the store was for sale, Politics & Prose will be under the new ownership of former Washington Post reporters Bradley Graham and his wife Lissa Muscatine. Barbara Meade and David Cohen, the widower of Meade’s fellow owner Carla Cohen, chose the couple to buy the store after entertaining five or six bids and determining Graham and Muscatine were “uniquely qualified to extend the store’s reputation as a gathering place for ideas and civic discourse.” At a meeting with store staff, Graham said Politics & Prose has “a very special culture here, a culture we want […]
BAMM Enters New Credit Agreement As Executives Add Stock
Books-A-Million stock hit a 52-week low last week on the heels of disappointing fourth quarter and annual earnings, following a pattern similar to Barnes & Noble’s though less dramatic. Shares fell more than 8 percent on Friday, closing at $4.10 a share, and were down 20 percent in the three days after their earnings report. A number of company executives added shares at the bargain price of a penny per share according to a series of SEC filings, by exercising options. CEO Clyde Anderson led the group, adding 116,840 shares, boosting his total holdings to more than 1.8 million shares. The […]
Borders Asks Court to Authorize $8.3 Million in Executive Bonus Payments
In papers filed last week, Borders asked a federal bankruptcy court to authorize as much as $8.3 million in bonus payments to company executives – including up to $1.7 million to CEO Michael Edwards. Seventeen executives are covered by the largest bonus program, which could add between $4.7m and $7.1m, while a second $1.2 million bonus program covers 25 “director-level” managers that court papers say are “critical to the debtors’ reorganization and to ongoing business.” The company said that 70% of its top executives have been with Borders for 18 months or less, and that bonuses were not paid at […]
HMV Confirms Waterstone’s Is For Sale, As Rumors of a Management Buyout Swirl
Weeks of speculation about the future of Waterstone’s after parent company HMV let investors know that it might violate banking covenants – not to mention the possibility that founder Tim Waterstone and minority shareholder Alexander Mamut are interested in buying the chain — has led to today’s announcement that yes, Waterstone’s is on the block, its fate potentially decided in the next four weeks. “In response to press speculation, the board confirms it is exploring strategic options in respect of Waterstone’s and HMV Canada,” HMV said in a statement. “The board also confirms that no discussions are taking place with respect to […]
Briefs: Dorchester Woes Continue; The Brand of Mary Higgins Clark; Penguin Piracy Suit; And More
Dorchester Publishing continues to do its best zombie impression, as a number of authors have learned the ailing company continues to sell digital copies of their work even after they no longer hold the rights, and despite repeated assurances they would stop this practice. Horror writer Brian Keene detailed the situation on his blog, saying that he found unauthorized e-copies of his books under the Dorchester banner selling through various digital outlets. “In the most recent case (iBooks), Dorchester blamed their vendor, Libre Digital, but provided no documentation verifying this. An employee at Apple cast doubt on this explanation. In the […]