Attending the Allen & Company conference in Sun Valley, Liberty Media ceo John Malone spoke publicly about the potential Barnes & Noble buyout for the first time since the possible merger was announced back in May. “It would be a bit of a flier for us, on whether or not Barnes & Noble can play competitively with the likes of Apple and Amazon in the digital transformation,” he said. “That’s really the bet.” Malone characterized the steep decline in brick-and-mortar bookselling as akin to those who survive a smallpox epidemic: “If you’re still alive, well, maybe you got a chance […]
Earnings Reports
Holland’s Arbeiderspers and Balans Are Merging Into Other Units; HMV Takes Big Writedown on Waterstone’s Sale; and More
Holland’s WPG (Weekblad Pers Groep) is merging some its well-known imprints in response to difficult market conditions. Arbeiderspers is going to merge with Bruna, relocating to Utrecht next January while maintaining a small office in Amsterdam. And Balans is going to merge with De Bezige Bij. Now that Waterstone’s has been sold, former parent company HMV reveals in its annual earnings report that the bookseller’s overall sales fell 14.4 million pounds for the year (with comps falling 3.8 percent) at £499.2 million, but operating profit rose to £9.5 million, compared to £2.8 million the year before. HMV also took a £110.5 million pound writedown […]
Nook Drives Record Full Year Sales (And Big Losses) For BN
Barnes & Noble reported fourth quarter and full year earnings Tuesday morning, and the results show even more clearly the divide between the company’s burgeoning digital growth and its still-declining brick & mortar business. For the year, sales rose 20 percent to just under $7 billion, a company record. The marked increase in sales owed to a huge jump at BN.com (with sales up 65 percent to $858 million) and the inclusion of a full year of sales from BN College, which reported full-year sales of $1.8 billion. Superstore comps were up 0.7 percent for the year because of digital, […]
Wiley Softens At Year-End, With Strong Digital Growth
Wiley’s fourth quarter sales rose 2 percent to $445 million, with adjusted net income flat at $28.5 million. But those earnings were down a penny on a per share basis, at 46 cents a share, and declined 5 percent on a currency-neutral basis. Analysts were expecting 3 cents more per share in earnings, and $7 million more in sales than reported. A strong performance in higher education was offset by softness in Professional/Trade (P/T), which fell 3 percent to $110 million, due to “foregone sales” related to Borders’ bankruptcy. They say Borders “represented about 5 percent of projected P/T sales” […]
Earnings: Pan Macmillan Q1 Digital Sales at 8 Percent; Digital Spending Causes Q4 Earnings Drop for Indigo
Pan Macmillan said digital sales for the first quarter of 2011 made up 8 percent of total revenue, and they expect that number to rise to about 10 percent for the full fiscal year. (That puts them at the high end of UK publishers disclosing ebook sales so far.) Over the same period, the publisher’s sales of print books have also shown “double-digit sales growth.” The Bookseller In contrast, in a statement timed with their annual meeting, Quarto said US ebook sales of their illustrated books are heading towards a projected 2 percent of sales. They add, “there is talk […]
Digital Accelerates At Bloomsbury, Which Announces Digital Drama Library with Faber
Bloomsbury, which is readjusting its fiscal year, reported results for the 14 months ending February 28. Since the publisher already disclosed 12-month results recently, we’ll only delve into the highlights and what’s new. Their ebook sales continue to accelerate. They were £1.5 million for all of 2010, and have now registered £1.1 million for the first two months of 2011. Chief executive Nigel Newton says in the release, “This is an exciting time for Bloomsbury: demand for digital delivery, including e-books, is increasing significantly; it will change the publishing business model creating one worldwide market. The recent organisation change is […]