Last Friday Rakuten reported fourth quarter full-year 2015 results. In connection with that report, they took 38.1 billion yen in impairment charges (roughly $332 million), including a significant charge against the Kobo division of 7.8 billion yen (roughly $68 million). The company said that Kobo “has been impacted by a slower start to the rise of the global ebook industry than we originally expected, and hence its business plan fell behind original targets.” At the same time, Rakuten said that OverDrive’s financial performance “has been rapidly improving.” They added that “as a result, we expect EBITDA of our ebook business including […]
Booksellers
On Cue: Waterstones’ Annual Retreat From Forecasts of Profit
Waterstones has filed financial results for the fiscal year through April 2015, and managing director James Daunt is engaging in his annual dance of walking back the bold proclamations he made to an always-eager press during the important holiday sales period. Amazingly, our analysis right now is exactly the same as what we said a year ago. Here are the facts: According to the company’s records filed with the UK’s Companies House, sales for the year ending April 2015 were £378 million, as the company lost money again — albeit with losses reduced to £1.9 million after taxes. The Bookseller says that […]
Indigo Celebrates Big Holiday Quarter
Canada’s dominant physical bookseller Indigo reported fiscal third quarter sales, through December 26, with revenue up 12.9 percent to $383 million (a $44 million gain), and net earnings of $52.8 million, up sharply from $33 million a year ago. Those gains came even though the chain had one less superstore and four fewer small-format stores than in the same period a year ago. The company had “high single digit growth in the core book business due to a combination of popular titles and a growing trend for adult coloring books” and even better “double digit growth in the general merchandise business,” which […]
Amazon Grows, But Profits Aren’t Enough for Traders
Amazon reported fourth quarter sales after the close of the market on Thursday, with revenues growing 22 percent to $35.7 billion, and net income of $482 million in the fourth quarter, or $1.00 per diluted share. While those sound like strong results (record results, even), analysts were expecting slightly higher sales ($35.98 billion) and much stronger earnings of $1.58 per share, so the stock is down — falling about 9 percent first thing Friday after having risen on Thursday ahead of the earnings announcement. The AWS unit generated $687 million in operating income (while the entire company had $1.1 billion of operating income in […]
Apple Gains, Modestly, As “Services” Are Explained More
In closely-watched first quarter 2016 results that had many expecting Apple to stumble, the company reported sales and earnings slightly ahead of the same period a year ago, barely setting new records. Sales for the quarter ending December 26 were $75.9 billion (up $1.3 billion) and net income was $18.4 billion (up $400 million), or $3.28 per diluted share. But projections for the second quarter do forecast a decline in sales; the company expects revenues of between $50 billion and $53 billion, compared to $58 billion in second quarter 2015 (and below analysts’ previous forecasts of $55 billion). As a […]
Barnes & Noble Education Falters During Key Back-to-School Quarter
Barnes & Noble Education followed in the footsteps of their former parent company with a disappointing second quarter sales report — only it matters more to BNED, since this was supposed to be their big “fall rush” season. Sales of $755.9 million were up $4.2 million, but net income fell by $3.6 million to $33.4. (They opened 7 new stores in the quarter, which added $6.6 million in sales.) EBITDA fell as well, at $72.7 million, down $5.2 million. Same-store sales dropped 3 percent in the quarter. CEO Max Roberts said in the release, “This fall rush period was negatively […]