Amazon reported second quarter sales after the close of the market on Thursday. Results looked a lot like last quarter’s: Sales grew 22 percent to $15.7 billion, as operating income fell to $79 million (down 26 percent), with the company recorded a net loss of $7 million, or two cents a share. Those numbers were in line with the company’s broad range of guidance, but the silly stock analysts had somehow talked themselves into expect actual earnings of 5 cents of a share (and slightly higher sales). Similar to the first quarter, North American media sales of $2.173 billion were […]
Earnings Reports
Scholastic Finishes Fiscal Year Dominated By Hunger Games Falloff
The storyline behind Scholastic’s fiscal 2013 reports has been the adjustment back to normal as the previous year’s extraordinary THE HUNGER GAMES trilogy sales — which sold upwards of 50 million copies in fiscal 2012 — leveled off. The results were in line with or ahead of their revised guidance, even though the numbers reflect a reset for the company. They took another charge of 21 cents per share in the quarter “related to cost reduction and restructuring programs” that included $6.6 million in pretax severance payments. For the year ahead, they forecast similar results, projecting sales of approximately $1.8 billion, […]
Sales Rise at OUP
Oxford University Press reported their results for the fiscal year ending March 2013, with sales rising 5 percent (or 4.4 percent on a like-for-like basis) and strong profits. Total sales were £759 million (up £36 million), “in spite of the difficult trading conditions.” Pre-tax profit of £116 million was up slightly, while higher taxes made the net profit a few million pounds lower. Chief executive Nigel Portwood notes, “These results compare favorably with those of our competitors, and are all the more impressive given the difficulties we faced.” PDF report
With Trade Division Selloff “Effectively Complete,” Wiley Anticipates Further Restructuring Costs and Layoffs
Fourth quarter adjusted sales at Wiley rose 3 percent to $441 million, as operating income of $58.9 million dropped 9 percent and adjusted net income of $42.6 million (or 71 cents a share) was down 6 percent. For the full year, sales of $1.761 billion were virtually flat compared to a year ago, with operating income of $252.4 million and net income of $175.6 million declining 6 and 7 percent, respectively. (Adjusted results reflect the trade publishing properties sold to Google, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and other companies, a process which was “effectively complete” by the end of the fourth quarter.) […]
People, Etc.
Jeff Tegge has joined Legato Publishers Group, the recently announced new distribution affiliate of Publishers Group West headed by former IPG chief Mark Suchomel, as vp, sales. Legge was formerly a colleague of Suchomel’s at IPG, where he also had the title of vp, sales. Christina Quintero has joined Little, Brown Books for Young Readers as art director for licensing. Previously she was associate art director at Grosset & Dunlap/Price Stern Sloan. The Guggenheim-Lehrman Prize is a newly launched award for the best scholarly book in military history. The prize, worth $50,000 will be awarded beginning in February 2014. The ABA announced […]
Sales, Comps and Earnings Fall at BAM with No Big Hits; Sales and Profits Drop for Indigo
Following the expansion of their store footprint over a year ago, Books-a-Million has returned to sales declines on both an overall as well as a comparable store basis. For their first quarter, ending March 4, overall sales fell 7.4 percent to $104.5 million (down from $112.8 million a year ago), and same-store sales dropped 6.8 percent. As a result, their net loss from continuing operations increased — up to $3.7 million, 25 cents per share, almost double the $1.9 million loss recorded a year ago. CEO Terrance Finley said in the announcement, “Our first quarter results were slightly below our […]