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 […]
Distribution
People, Awards, and More
At Rizzoli, Susan Masry has been promoted to international sales manager, overseeing sales to Asia, the Indian subcontinent, Latin America,,the Middle East, and South Africa, as well as Rizzoli’s domestic export accounts. Media and intellectual property lawyer Kevin Goering has joined Norwick & Schad, which has been renamed Norwick, Schad & Goering. In their third week of listing ebook bestsellers, the NYT has purged that self-published title we identified last week and–like USA Today–allowed Lisa Gardner’s 99-cent ebook to rise to No 1. (and No. 2 on the combined list). The LA Times announced nominees for its annual book prizes […]
People, Etc.
Anne Kubek has joined the InScribe Digital as EVP, General Manager. She had been EVP of merchandising and marketing at Borders, spending 20 years with the company before leaving in late 2009. Meg LaBorde Kuehn joins Kirkus Media in the new position of vp of business development. Her most recently publishing position was coo of Greenleaf Book Group. Former Granta Books managing director David Graham has joined Aurum and its associated trade publishing division, where he will be setting up a new imprint, Union Press, which will focus on “serious literary writing”, specifically non-fiction. Former Granta staffers Alex Clark and […]
HB Fenn Bankruptcy Filing Lists $25M in Liabilities; Macmillan To Ship Direct As of April 1
Canadian distributor HB Fenn confirmed its February 3 bankruptcy announcement in a statement of affairs filed with the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy Canada. In it Fenn lists $25 million (CA) in liabilities against $14.8 million in assets. Fenn owes $21.8 million to unsecured creditors, with Macmillan the largest by far (owed $10 million, with an additional $600,000 owed to its UK arm.) Other notable unsecured creditors, according to Quill & Quire, include four H.B. Fenn-affiliated companies comprising Fenn Publishing, Fenn Technologies, and two numbered corporations bearing H.B. Fenn’s Bolton address who together are owed $4.1 million, HarperCollins ($3.3 million, […]
McEvoy Adds to Group with Princeton Architectural Press Purchase
Founder and owner of New York-based Princeton Architectural Press Kevin Lippert has sold the company to Nion McEvoy’s The McEvoy Group as of January 1, announced today. Lippert is staying on as president and publisher. Chronicle has been the publisher’s distributor since 1995, and will operate the press “as a stand-alone operation.” McEvoy Group president Jack Jensen says “we look forward to helping Princeton consolidate its position as one of the preeminent publishers of books on architecture and design in the world, and to expand its offerings in both academic and electronic publishing. Lippert had repurchased shares in the publisher […]
The Potential Costs of Borders’ Unpaid Bills
With Wiley’s $9 million writedown last Friday of money owed to them by Borders that they do not expect to collect, it’s clear that the bookseller’s troubles are going to hit balance sheets even before the possibility of hitting bankruptcy court. Most of the coverage since we first reported in late December that Borders was not paying major creditors has focused on the largest publishing companies, but with a second month of non-payment we wanted to look at how the impact of Borders current inability to pay their bills might be felt across a much wider group of publishers. Since […]