Amazon reported third quarter sales of $13.81 billion, up 27 percent from a year ago, but below analysts expectations. As forecast, they had a loss for the quarter, registering an operation loss of $28 million and a net loss of $274 million. $169 million of that loss was due to impairment charges against the unsuccessful LivingSocial investment. Guidance for the coming holiday quarter predicts a wide-ranging performance of anywhere between a loss of $490 million and profit of $310 million, and sales are forecast to grow between 16 percent and 31 percent. While those figures were lower than analysts had […]
Booksellers
Profit Declines at Bloomsbury, As Digital Comprises 15% of Adult Division Sales
Bloomsbury reported results for the six months ending August 31, with continuing pre-tax profits falling 40 percent to £0.9 million, even as sales rose 2 percent to £43.5 million. With recent acquisitions the academic and professional division now comprises 28 percent of company sales, though “academic sales peak at the beginning of the academic year, in September and October.” Sales at the adult division were flat (and down 5 percent before acquisitions), while children’s and educational sales fell 23 percent and operating profit in that segment disappeared, blamed on the comparison to last year’s Harry Potter sales tying in to […]
Corporate: Swann Steps Down as CEO of WHSmith; Final Suitors for McGraw-Hill Education;HarperCollins Moves to Streamline Global Publishing Infrastructure; and More
Kate Swann will step down as ceo of WHSmith on June 30 after more than nine years, the company announced Thursday. She will be replaced by current managing director of Smith’s high street business Steve Clarke. “It is an opportune time to make a change of leadership, and I am sure that the company will continue to thrive under Steve,” Swann told the FT. She didn’t elaborate further on future plans but said she “certainly doesn’t intend to retire.” The news was announced in tandem with the release of WHSmith’s preliminary full-year results, in which pre-tax profits rose 9.7 percent […]
Books-A-Million Second Quarter Sales Rise As Losses Narrow
Books-A-Million reported second quarter earnings for the period ended July 28, and for the third straight quarter sales rose — up 14.9 percent (or $19.6 million)–to $120.4 million compared to a year ago, due to the expanded store base that now comprises 255 outlets. The company recorded a net loss of $0.9 million for the quarter, an improvement from the $2.9 million in losses a year ago. Store comps were also up slightly, at 0.5 percent, compared to the second quarter last year. BAMM ceo and president Terence Finley characterized the general improvement in sales as “reflect[ing] the contribution from […]
Corporate: Bertelsmann Finalizes Company Legal Changes; Book Comps Up at Hastings
Bertelsmann has finally made good on changing the company’s overall legal structure to SE & Co. KGaA, which is often used for businesses with a family-style ownership and structure, from AG (a privately-owned joint stock company.) In a brief announcement Bertelsmann stressed the change was an “identity-preserving change of legal form” which won’t change their ownership structure and corporate structure, or anything for the company’s employees. But it could make it possible for Bertelsmann to raise capital by issuing shares to the public, without giving those public shareholders any meaningful control in how the company is run. Back in March […]
Barnes & Noble Q1 Earnings Boosted By Retail, But Nook Losses Widen
Barnes & Noble did something they haven’t done for a while in their just-reported fiscal first quarter: They actually exceeded analysts’ pessimistic earnings expectations, with a reduced net loss of 78 cents per share (or $41 million), versus the predicted 96 cents a share. And they showed positive EBIDTA for the quarter–just $4 million, but much better than a $24 million loss a year ago. Also, actual bookstore book sales continued to improve, despite a forecast last quarter that those comps would decline in fiscal 2013. But that’s about it for the good news. The bad news is that the […]