HarperCollins parent company News Corp. reported first quarter results after the close of the market Tuesday–and HarperCollins has disappeared from the radar. Among the company’s smaller-producing units, Harper’s results have been merged with the larger “newspapers and information services” accounting lines from previous reports. In a conference call with investors, company officials said “this reporting change recognizes both the way we group these businesses and a smaller percentage of total earnings that these businesses now represent.” Reinforcing the diminished importance of HarperCollins in the overall corporate picture, their name is not mentioned once in the new quarterly report–which uses the […]
Earnings Reports
Harlequin Continues Pattern: Sales Slide, As Profits Stay Strong
Harlequin parent company Torstar reported that book publishing had “stable results” in their third quarter. Following their recent pattern, sales fell slightly, down $5 million at $117.5 milion (CA) as operating profit for the segment rose $100,000 to $23 million, the seventh consecutive quarter of earnings growth.Release
Pearson Raises Earnings Guidance, But Beware the Press Coverage
The good news is that Pearson issued a brief third-quarter trading update (with no actual sales or profit figures) in which they raised their profit expectations for the full year. The funny part is the way that reputable news organizations (like the BBC and the Telegraph), suffering from ebook fever, come to the erroneous conclusion that “Pearson said that surging demand for e-books had helped drive a better-than-expected performance.” (They are fooled in part by the stock line that Penguin ebook sales increased threefold, which was also the case at the six-month mark–and this time a year ago ebook sales […]
Amazon Boosts Sales But Margins Suffer, Worrying Wall Street, and Media Sales Slow
Amazon reported yesterday that third quarter sales rose 39 percent to $7.56 billion, with net income of $231 million and operating income of $268 million, up 7 percent. While they beat analysts’ expectations, somewhat moderated after coming up short in the second quarter, operating margin looks to have fallen considerably, from 4.6 percent down to 3.5 percent. With earnings lagging sales growth throughout this fiscal year, the company’s shares were down sharply last night in the after-market, but investors reconsidered this morning and the stock is rising again. The press release “highlights” are almost all Kindle, so you have to […]
Apple Sells Another 4.2 Million iPads, But Analysts Are Confused
Apple reported fourth quarter sales, through September 25, recording record revenue (over $20 billion) and profit (over $4 billion). They sold 4.19 million iPads in the quarter–ahead of the 3.27 million units sold in the previous quarter (when it was on sale for 84 days, or about a week less than the full reporting period). That’s nearly 7.5 million iPads so far with the big holiday quarter still ahead, putting them on track for over 12.5 million units in 2010. Also significant is that iPad sales were greater than sales for the entire line of Macintosh computers, which also hit […]
Bloomsbury Says Business Is “Resilient”; Book Sales Down 3 Percent at WH Smith
In a third-quarter trading statement, Bloomsbury says their “trading in the UK remains resilient.” They continue to expect the release of the new Harry Potter movie in November to boost book sales. The company writes: “Overall, business is performing well for the group. The outcome for the year is still dependent on the level of consumer and business to business demand between now and the end of the financial year. Major database projects are under consideration which forms part of new business in 2010.” Release Also in the UK, yesterday WH Smith reported preliminary results for the fiscal year. Same-store […]