Barnes & Noble has settled with Spring Design over the 2009 lawsuit on whether the Nook’s design breached patent agreements for the now discontinued Alex Reader. Under terms of the agreement, Spring is granting Barnes & Noble a non-exclusive license for all of its patents and patent applications. Other terms of the settlement were not disclosed.Release McGraw-Hill has bought Bookette Software Co., a privately held provider of automated scoring for tests, including written exams.Terms of the deal were not disclosed.Release AbeBooks’ European division will acquire ZVAB.com, a leading online marketplace of German rare antiquarian books, from Mediantis AG. The acquisition […]
Deals
Bookselling: Waterstone’s Sales Talk; Foyles on the Move; Nontraditional Outlets; and More
Russian billionaire Alexander Mamut, who has increased his stake in Waterstone’s to more than 6 percent over the past few weeks, is now reportedly in talks with the company to buy the chain outright in a joint bid with founder Tim Waterstone. Mamut has hired Credit Suisse to assist in the potential bid. ThisIsMoney.co.uk Foyles will move its flagship space from its current home on 113-119 Charing Cross Road, where it has been since 1906, to a new store down the street sometime in 2013. The nearly 75,000 square foot space, almost double the present location, was bought by Foyle […]
Briefs: Kodansha and Dai Nippon Buy Vertical; Syracuse University Press Pulls Fictionalized Memoir; and More
Kodansha and Dai Nippon Printing announced they are buying nearly equal stakes in smaller Japanese publisher Vertical, for an undisclosed sum. Kodansha will own 46.7% of the company, and Dai Nippon will hold a 46% stake. In addition, current COO Yoshinobu Noma will succeed Sawako Noma as Kodansha CEO in April.Anime News Network Syracuse University Press will no longer print copies of Montclair State University professor Fawzia Afzal-Khan’s fictionalized memoir Lahore With Love: Growing Up With Girlfriends Pakistani Style, published last year, after receiving legal threats from a woman in Pakistan who says that a character is based on her […]
Leak of Unsold Palin Tell-All By Former Aide Draws Attention
On Friday a manuscript of a tell-all by former Sarah Palin chief of staff Frank Bailey was leaked widely. Originally called Renegade: Sarah Palin’s Hatchet Man, the 456-page manuscript is now called Blind Allegiance to Sarah Palin: A Memoir of Our Tumultuous Years. (By one account, Bailey first tried to sell a book in 2009 after Palin resigned as governor of Alaska.) It’s co-written with Jeanne Devon and Ken Morris, who says the leaked version is an “unauthorized draft” that is still being revised. He claims the release was “an unethical breach and I’m disgusted by it.” The pitch letter […]
WikiLeaks Assange Is Writing to Raise Funds
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange claims he had to sell a memoir to raise funds to defend himself, telling the Times of London, “I don’t want to write this book, but I have to. I have already spent [more than $300,000] for legal costs, and I need to defend myself and keep WikiLeaks afloat.” Did anyone tell him how long it was going to take collect his advance? Assange says Knopf is paying about $800,000 and Canongate is paying him approximately $500,000. He estimates that money from serialization and other territories will add another few hundred thousand dollars, though again its […]
WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange Has Memoirs Coming from Knopf and Canongate In March
Canongate bought rights to Julian Assange’s memoirs for the UK and translations from Caroline Michel at PFD but he won’t be contemplating his life for long, due to deliver a manuscript in March 2011 for publication later in the year. Knopf bought rights here. Daily Finance