Barnes & Noble issued a brief preliminary report on bookstore sales for the nine-week holiday period, saying that comparable store sales rose 9.7 percent through January 1. Results were driven by the the Nook reading devices, with BN saying they had the largest single day of store sales in the company’s history on December 23. They will report more details on January 6, when we may get a better glimpse of how book sales held up. Most notable about today’s report is that results were ahead of the company’s own forecast at the end of November, when they told analysts […]
Earnings Reports
Random CEO Writes on Year’s Highlights
Random House ceo Markus Dohle writes to employees worldwide to “celebrate a good fiscal year for Random House worldwide despite the hurdle of ailing economies in most of our territories.” Among the highlights, Stieg Larsson Millennium trilogy is “on course to sell 14 million copies in 2010” in the US across all formats, with another 2 million trade paperbacks and e-books in Germany. Worldwide digital sales are expected to be up by 250 percent over 2009, and in the US he acknowledges that “for some of our fall publication titles, nearly half of the overall first-week sales have been in […]
Sales Up Slightly As Scholastic Underdelivers
Sales at Scholastic rose 2 percent in their second quarter, at $675.7 million, up 2% from $660.1 million a year ago. Earnings from continuing operations before taxes were $124.3 million, up 22 percent–except that the company took a large writedown this time last year. Trade publishing sales of $53.4 million rose 8 percent compared to a year ago. Overall, “results were below our plan, reflecting lower spending by school districts and lower than expected revenue in clubs.” The company said they had “lower sales of educational technology relative to a year ago, as well as higher promotion spending in School […]
After Another Terrible Quarter, Borders Warns of New Liquidity Threat
Borders reported third-quarter results after the close of the market on Thursday, and their report card is as dreadful as many feared. They are losing even more money than before and sales continue to fall at alarming rates. As part of the report, they also warn of another looming liquidity threat. The company is forced again to look for “replacement financing,” following the continuing losses and a low third-party “estimated liquidation value of our inventory” (which is their primary asset, and affects how much they can borrow.) If they can’t find a solution, they warn they could be in violation […]
Waterstone’s Remains Rosy On Neverending “Turnaround” As Comps Still Fall
Waterstone’s parent HMV reported sales for the first half of the fiscal year at the bookselling chain of 219.5 million pounds, down 2.4 percent overall, and declining 3.2 percent on a same-store basis. They had an operating loss of 9.9 million pounds, which is better than the loss of 12.9 million pounds a year go. In the best stiff-upper-lip tradition available, management insists that they are making “good progress on [the] turnaround at Waterstone’s.” At the same time HMV reminds investors that “the outcome of our full financial year will be largely determined by the next four weeks of the […]
Consumer Sales Fall As Wiley Stays Almost Flat Overall
Sales at John Wiley fell one percent in their second quarter, to $442 million, and operating income of $78 million is technically ahead of this time last year–but only because of last year’s $11 million writedown related to GIT Verlag. Absent that charge, income fell 10 percent, “due to top-line results and increased investment in digital products and support systems to support future business growth.” The professional/trade division was “soft,” particularly “compared with a strong second quarter last year. Low traffic and sell-through at some retail accounts contributed to these results. eBook sales continue to grow, more than doubling over […]