Pearson issued their traditional January “trading report,” providing sales highlights in advance of a full annual report on March 5. The pandemic year only reinforced the longstanding trend: Global online learning (18 percent sales growth) was weighed down by declines in US higher ed courseware (with sales falling (12) percent). The businesses most heavily hit…
Earnings Reports
Scholastic Second Quarter Results Hit Again By Continued School Closures
Scholastic reported earnings for the second quarter of fiscal 2021 ended November 30, with total sales of $406 million, down 32 percent from $597 million a year ago. The decline in operating income was even steeper, to $49 million, more than halved from $105 million last year. The trade division continued to perform very well,…
Corporate: Wiley’s Earnings Gain and Guidance is Reinstated, Barnes & Noble Education Still Suffering
Wiley reported second quarter sales for the period ended October 31, with sales of $491 million, compared to $466.2 million last year’s period, an increase of 5 percent. Excluding acquisitions and currency impact, however, revenue was flat. Adjusted EBITDA was $120.3 million, increased from $110 million, or 7 percent. Significantly, the company reinstated guidance for…
Corporate: Netflix Settles with Chooseco, and More
Chooseco’s lawsuit against Netflix over their interactive film Black Mirror: Bandersnatch has been settled, as the parties informed US District Court Judge William Sessions III on Monday at a status conference. The terms remain confidential, but “the parties did tell the judge of one slightly unusual condition — the judge’s Feb. 2020 opinion denying Netflix’s dismissal…
People, Etc.
Kelsey Nolan has joined Ze Books and Unnamed Press as a publicity and marketing manager. She previously worked at the Los Angeles Times as the events programming manager. Cindy Kim has been promoted to associate editor for Little Simon. Andree Abecassis, 81, died November 4 at home in Berkeley, CA, following a brief struggle with…
Briefs: New Books From Franzen and Bridges, Chronicle Expands In Games and Toys
Forthcoming FSG will publish a new novel by Jonathan Franzen, titled CROSSROADS, the first in his trilogy, A Key to All Mythologies, in October 2021. The publisher writes that the novel is “the beginning of a story that encompasses all the ‘mythologies’—the political, religious, and intellectual crosscurrents—that have animated and troubled American life in recent…
