Barnes & Noble’s promised international expansion of Nook stores has been quietly postponed again. The last time the company delayed their timeline was in late July, in their delayed annual SEC report, which stated, “the company now expects expansion into these 10 markets to be accomplished by the end of 2013.” Now their new SEC report for the first quarter of fiscal 2014 pushes that target forward another 4 months, saying “it now expects expansion into these 10 markets to be accomplished by the end of fiscal 2014.” As a result of the continued delays, they may face a financial penalty […]
Earnings Reports
Random House Has Lower Sales, Higher Earnings
Bertelsmann reported results for the first six months of the year, including the last financial report for Random House Inc. as a standalone company, covering the period right up to the merger with Penguin. Sales were “slightly lower” than last year’s record first half, falling 32 million euros (or 3.4 percent) to 915 million euros for the period. Operating EBIT “soared” by 4 million euros (or 3.5 percent) to a mid-year record of 117 million euros. Among the major contributors were sales of “more than four million” English-language units of Dan Brown’s INFERNO in the first six weeks on sale, […]
Hachette Has Softer Second Quarter But Remains Up for the Year
Lagardere reported first-half of the year results after the close of the market in France on Thursday. Sales at Lagardere Publishing were 495 euros in the second quarter — and 917 million euros for the formally reported first half, up 3.1 percent on a like-for-like basis, and 12 million euros higher on a topline basis from a year ago. (They say negative foreign exchange movements cost 15.5 million euros.) That means they gave up some ground up in the second quarter, after a strong first quarter that was 25 million euros ahead of the prior year. Earnings rose more, with […]
Like AAP and BN, Books-A-Million Reports Weak Quarter
Consistent with other recently-reported declines, Books-A-Million said sales for the quarter ending August 3 fell 8.6 percent to $109.2 million. Same-store sales declined further, down 12 percent — and they had a big net loss of $9.0, or $61 cents per share (compared to a loss of $900,000 a year ago). Similar to BN’s recent report, BAMM had to adjust for “cumulative losses in recent years” and incurred higher income tax expenses, accounting for $7.3 million of that loss. The chain suffered from both missing hits but also a slowdown in digital growth. CEO Terrance Finley said in the release, “Results for the […]
Nook Is Back to Making Their Own Color Devices
In a rather startling conference call with investors on Tuesday, Barnes & Noble’s current ranking executive Michael Huseby executed another turnabout on the company’s strategy for color devices, while blaming others for misunderstanding rather than simply admitting another change in direction. Huseby insisted that when BN said on June 25 that going forward their color devices would be produced by others, “many people interpreted [the] comments incorrectly,” but their statement stated sounded pretty clear: “The company plans to significantly reduce losses in the Nook segment by limiting risks associated with manufacturing. Going forward, the company intends to continue to design […]
Riggio “Suspends” Interest In Buying Barnes & Noble Stores, With Weak First Quarter Sales
As Barnes & Noble opened the 2014 fiscal year with falling sales across all segments of the business, the biggest news is the admission that chairman Leonard Riggio’s interest in offering to buy the retail bookstores has gone nowhere and is “suspended.” You could have read the tea leaves in the decline in the bookseller’s shares over the last three trading days, with the stock dropping almost 5 percent to $16.67 on Monday. But that will be modest against Tuesday’s trading; shares were down 16 percent in the first hour (down roughly $2.75 a share). In a separate SEC filing […]