Simon & Schuster had a weak finish to a difficult year, as sales fell over 20 percent in their fourth quarter ending December 31, down more than 10 percent (or $25 million) to $220 million, blamed on a “soft market.” For the full fiscal year, sales of $793.5 million were down 7.5 percent compared to a year ago. That sales number is also behind their 2007 sales (of $886 million) and 2006 sales (of $807 million). Profits fells further, with adjusted OIBDA of just $13.6 million this quarter, less than half of last year’s earnings of $28.3 million. For the […]
Earnings Reports
Sales Fall 20 Percent At HBG USA (On Meyer Comp), But Lagardere Finishes Ahead
Lagardere reported preliminary results for their fiscal fourth quarter, ending December 31, with sales at Lagardere Publishing down 2.7 percent at 579 million euros (though the company claims that on a “like-for-like” currency adjusted basis sales rose 0.2 percent in the period and declares it “better than expected”). Sales at Hachette Book Group USA, which had shown “double-digit growth” through the end of September, fell “about 20 percent” in the fourth quarter–due to comparisons to Stephenie Meyer’s big breakout a year ago, when she sold 8 million copies in December 2009. US ebook sales, as previously mentioned by ceo Arnaud […]
Sales Rebound and Harper Makes Some Money; Murdoch on Apple
In the holiday fiscal second quarter, ending December 31, HarperCollins had sales of $381 million and operating income of $65 million–a considerable improvement from sales of $305 million and a mere $23 million in operating income a year ago. Parent News Corp. says they had “higher sales at the general and the children’s book divisions which were partially offset by higher royalty and manufacturing costs.” It’s the first quarterly improvement in sales after five straight declines (so yes, the bar is lower). Operating income had already turned positive in the first quarter of this year, reported in early November. Two […]
Bezos Admits to "Millions" of Kindles, As Amazon Grows 42 Percent
In reporting, Jeff Bezos finally mentioned something involving numbers with respect to Kindles, which are now owned by “millions of people.” And ratio of Kindle sales to print sales continues to grow: “when we have both editions, we sell 6 Kindle books for every 10 physical books.” Bezos even indicated specifically, “this is year-to-date and includes only paid books — free Kindle books would make the number even higher.” Amazon reported a huge fourth quarter, with sales of $9.52 billion, 42 percent higher than a year ago. Net income rose even more, up 71 percent at $384 million. North American […]
WH Smith Holiday Comps Down 5 Percent
In a brief trading update, UK retailer WH Smith congratulated itself for having same-store sales at their high street stores decline 5 percent for the eleven-week holiday selling period ending January 23–slightly weaker than the 4 percent comp decline for the past 21 weeks.Company release
Indigo Grows Sales and Profits
In the one positive earnings report from the holiday period for an English-language bookselling chain, Canada’s dominant Indigo said that the same-store superstore sales rose 3.4 percent for the quarter ending December 26, while their smaller format stores were down 1.6 percent. Overall sales rose $10.2 million or 3 percent to $340.2 million (CA). Net after-tax earnings of $34.5 million were 29 percent higher than a year ago. But Indigo still suffers from competition with Amazon online, with online sales declining 2.7 percent to $29.3 million.Release