With its shares trading at over $1 per share for almost two weeks now, Borders has decided not to ask shareholders to approve a reverse stock split at the company’s annual meeting on May 21. (The NY Stock Exchange has also decided to temporarily suspend the dollar-per-share minimum for all companies.) Borders also announced a sweeping change in the composition of its board. Two positions will be eliminated as it shrinks to eight members–and five directors who will still stand for re-election intend to “step down over the coming months as suitable replacements are found.” They have so many openings […]
Bookstores
ABA Says It "could be illegal for ABA to organize, support or condone an economic boycott of Amazon"
After a legal review, the American Booksellers Association offers cautionary legal advice to members, saying that businesses joining together to boycott, or advocate a boycott of, Amazon could be illegal since “antitrust laws forbid combinations or conspiracies in restraint of trade.” They note that “As individuals, you are free to express your opinion about Amazon’s activities. And, our country’s history is replete with stories of how individuals have combined to effect political and social change…. As an organization, however, we believe that it could be illegal for ABA to organize, support or condone an economic boycott of Amazon. Accordingly, it […]
BN Introduces Video-Blogging Booksellers
Barnes & Noble has added videos by 11 of their booksellers from around the country to their website’s Barnes & Noble Studio section. Called Blogging Booksellers, the feature, to be updated weekly, presents “a real-life and personalized account of recommended weekly reads” along with news about store events. The booksellers were “selected for their extraordinary passion and knowledge about books.”
ABA Stays the Course Naming Teicher New CEO
The ABA has picked longtime chief operating officer Oren Teicher to succeed Avin Domnitz as the organization’s CEO. President Gayle Shanks writes to members, “His encyclopedic knowledge of everything associated with ABA’s past and current programs, coupled with his thoughtful and insightful analysis of how ABA can meet our future challenges, combined to make him our clear choice.” Shanks also notes that “as recommended several years ago by our Governance Review Committee, details surrounding the new CEO contract will be made available to the membership after they are finalized. The Board wants to assure the membership that the terms of […]
Pershing Square Gives Borders Another Year
The biggest worry of the year for book publishers has been answered, as Borders appears to have been granted another 12 months to sort itself. Leading shareholder and lender of last resort Pershing Square has extended their $42.5 million term loan to Borders until April 1, 2010. But Pershing has once again won big concessions for that extension: The “put” option to buy the Paperchase chain (which Pershing never wanted to own in the first place) will expire, and the big grants of 14.7 million warrants will be reset from the previous price to $7 a share down to today’s […]
Children's Booksellers Organization Considers Relationship with ABA
The Association of Booksellers for Children told members via e-mail that at a recent planning retreat the board decided to take “proactive” steps to ensure the organization’s long-term survival that may include “pool[ing] our resources with our sister association, the American Booksellers Association.” The options “include becoming a division of ABA, a department of ABA, or another configuration that we haven’t determined yet. This would have the advantage of giving ABC the resources of a larger organization while expanding the programming available to all ABA members.” ABA board president Gayle Shanks writes that “the ABA Board is excited about exploring […]