Scholastic reported fourth-quarter and full-year results on Thursday morning. With the recent quarter dominated by their by big EdTech sale to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, sales from continuing operations were marginally below flat at $488 million, with operating income down 12 percent to $33.5 million (attributed primarily to foreign exchange impact in their international division, due to the strong dollar). Among the one-time charges incurred in the quarter was a pretax severance expense of $5.3 million, as part of their ongoing cost reduction and restructuring programs. Full-year sales from continuing operations were $1.64 billion, up 5 percent from $1.56 billion in […]
Earnings Reports
Apple Disappoints Investors By Outperforming Only A Little
There is business, and then there is Wall Street. Apple reported third quarter sales on Tuesday afternoon, with sales growing 33 percent to $49.6 billion and earnings growing 45 percent to $10.7 billion — exceeding at least some of analysts’ expectations, but only by small amounts, which led to the stock dropping about 6 percent Wednesday morning. iPhone sales were strong at 47.5 million units, while iPad sales continue to erode, at 10.9 million units (compared to 13.3 million in the same quarter a year ago). Lifetime iPad sales are now approximately 284 million units. The reporting line that includes iTunes and the […]
Google Play Growth Continues; Layoffs at Pearson US
Google reported stronger than expected second quarter results after the close of the market on Thursday and shares have spiked as result. The market is focused on improved YouTube ad sales and mobile search business, but we keep a narrower focus on the Google Play store — which is reported in their smallest revenue line, the humble “other revenues.” That segment had sales of $1.704 billion for the quarter, up 17 percent (or almost $250 million) compared to a year ago. The company said the numbers were “driven by substantial growth in Play offset by decline in the hardware sales.” (Chromebooks […]
Back to the Basics At Barnes: What’s Been Lost In the eBook Era?
On or about September 1 Barnes & Noble Inc. will return to its roots as a chain of retail bookstores, following the spinoff of Barnes & Noble Education and the nearly-complete winding down of the Nook experiment. So we thought it would be interesting to turn back the reporting clock and see what’s happened to BN Retail — and other major book chains — since the beginning of the modern eBook Era, as a lens for how to view Barnes & Noble’s prospects going forward. Barnes & Noble first became a different company in 2009, when they bought the privately-held BN College. […]
Book Sales Fell Slightly at Barnes & Noble, As Nook Shed Employees
Barnes & Noble filed their full annual SEC report, subsequent to their basic earnings release last Thursday, which offers more specific details about the company’s performance. Perhaps most relevant are the breakdowns on sales at the BN Retail unit. As reported last week, overall sales in this division decreased $186.9 million in the just-closed fiscal year, at $4.108 billion. Actual book sales declined by $5.5 million for the year, “primarily due to lower trade and juvenile sales.” Non-book merchandise rose by $21.9 million during the year, “primarily due to the continued growth of the toys & games and gift businesses.” Online sales […]
Barnes & Noble Finishes with Soft Quarter
Barnes & Noble reported fourth quarter fiscal 2015 results on Thursday morning, more or less in line with analysts’ expectations, losing $19.4 million (37 cents a share) on sales of $1.184 billion. Sales fell in all three divisions and were down $138 million (or 10.4 percent) compared to a year ago — though about half of that gap is due to the inclusion of an extra 14th week in final quarter a year ago, with that extra week having comprised $72 million in sales at the BN and BN College retail units. The extra week affects comparisons for both the […]