Bloomsbury issued a brief trading update on sales for the last four months of 2013. “In line with expectations,” sales rose 20 percent compared to a year ago, with “most of the growth generated from print sales.” Their sales had been up 13 percent for the first half of the year, helped by both trade hits and their continuing string of academic and professional publishing acquisitions. Separately, Russia’s two biggest trade publishers have completed the merger they began some time ago, with Eksmo finalizing their purchase of AST. The purchase price was not disclosed. Publishing Perspectives reports that Eksmo owner Oleg Novikov […]
Earnings Reports
Soft Holiday Sales for Barnes & Noble Are Still An “Improvement” As Digital Content Falls Again
Barnes & Noble followed up their weak second quarter sales report with some improvement over the following 9-week holiday sales period (through December 28): Same-store sales at the BN superstores and BN.com declined 6.6 percent overall, and 5.5 percent on a comparable-sales basis, at $1.1 billion. But nearly all of the retail decline was due to weaker sales of Nook devices and accessories; “core” store sales were “essentially flat”, down 0.2 percent compared to last year. General book sales probably declined more, since the company points to “strong increases in our juvenile, gift and toys & games categories.” But the […]
Sales Rise At Scholastic, But Earnings Fall On Two Charges
Sales inched up at Scholastic in their fiscal second quarter, ending November 30, rising $9.7 million to $623 million. But operating income of $94.7 million was down 7 percent as the company wrote down $13.4 million on “legacy acquisitions” in the children’s publishing and distribution segment and took a $5.5 million one-time charge for “cost reduction and restructuring programs” as well. At the same time, Scholastic said it will exercise an option to purchase their headquarters building in Soho for $255 million before the end of the year. They say it “should provide a number of benefits, including enhanced free […]
Realigned Wiley Grows
Wiley reported second quarter 2014 results of $449 million, up 8 percent on an “adjusted” basis. Net income increased 9 percent to $49.9 million (or 84 cents a share). Overall digital book revenue increased 40 percent compared to last year, to $31.4 million. The professional development segment, where Wiley’s remaining trade book lines resides, grew 7 percent for the quarter on an adjusted basis to $92.5 million, driven by digital books and online training and assessment. Wiley also recorded another $15.3 million in restructuring charges as part of its previously announced realignment — $2.1 million of which applied to the […]
Yet Another Weak Quarter for Books-A-Million
Hours after Barnes & Noble reported their second quarter financial results, Books-A-Million did the same Tuesday afternoon for its third quarter following the close of the market. Sales for the quarter ending November 2 fell 3.5 percent to $100.5 million. Same-store sales declined further, down 9.2 percent — and they had another big net loss of $7.1 million, or 47 cents per share (compared to a loss of $2.7 million a year ago). CEO Terrance Finley said in the release: “Our third quarter results are an improvement over the very difficult comparisons in the first half of the year. Comparable […]
Barnes & Noble Sells Less of Everything — But Shows Surprise Profit
Barnes & Noble reported weak sales across all of their divisions for the company’s fiscal second quarter (ending October 26), but a slightly smaller Nook loss and some of the fee concessions they’ve won from publishers for the retail stores allowed the company to produce something strange: actual net income. Sales for the quarter were $1.73 billion, down 8 percent or $150 million from a year ago, but EBITDA of $75.7 million was $9.1 million higher than 2012 and net income of $13 million, or 15 cents a share, was much improved and well ahead of expectations. (The loss for the […]