The financial world continues to speculate on just how deep Sumner Redstone’s cash squeeze will strike. On Friday his privately-held National Amusements said it “is engaged in constructive discussions with its bank group and noteholders regarding a covenant issue under National Amusement’s debt, which is unsecured.” They blamed “recent unprecedented market volatility which led to a precipitous drop in the value of the CBS and Viacom shares.” “Sources close to Redstone and Viacom say the executive’s current cash situation is so dire that selling Viacom or CBS – which he also controls – is now a real possibility. Redstone used […]
Earnings Reports
One Stock Rising: Pearson (Plus More from CBS and Bloomsbury)
In a brief trading update, Pearson rode a stronger dollar to positive effect, since it gets sixty percent of its sales from the US. Penguin, while up, appears to have weakened in the past quarter: the more detailed report three months ago had sales at the unit for the first half of the year up 9 percent to 408 million pounds, but at the nine-month mark the company says sales are up 3 percent for the year to date on a constant-exchange-basis (and 6 percent on a “headline” basis). Pearson Education continues a strong year with sales up 10 percent. […]
CBS Stock Price Plummets on Charge and Sell-Off; Border UK in Loan Trouble?
CBS issued revised guidance to investors on Friday afternoon, forecasting “a decline of mid-teens” in operating income for fiscal 2008 compared to a year ago. They also said they expect to take a $14 billion impairment charge in the third quarter “to reduce the carrying value of goodwill, intangible assets related to FCC licenses and investments.” Earlier in the day, Sumner Redstone’s National Amusements announced that it will sell $400 million in equal amounts of Viacom and CBS shares in order reduce debt and comply with their credit agreements. The proceeds will bring the company’s debt load down to $1.2 […]
WH Smith: A Bookseller Whose Stock Actually Rises
WH Smith presented the market with a pleasant surprise, reporting sales of 1.352 million pounds, up 4 percent for the year, with profits rising 15 percent to 76 million pounds, above analysts’ expectations. Like-for-like book sales were “flat excluding the impact of last year’s Harry Potter release” (aka “down”). “Gross margin was up year on year. We were pleased with our share performance versus the general high street,” the company said. And among their travel stores, “extended books charts, improved display of chart titles and strong promotions have contributed to our books performance and we have also seen an encouraging […]
Scholastic's Potterless Quarter
Scholastic reported first quarter sales of $285 million with a net loss from continuing operations of $44.7 million. Last year’s quarter had an additional $245 million, all but $5 million of that from Harry Potter, and recorded a gain of $3.3 million, unusual for the quarter, in which Scholastic usually has a seasonal loss with school not in session. CEO Dick Robinson says “largely reflecting a challenging market and prior year comparisons, educational technology sales were soft in the first quarter.” The numbers fell below the expectations of analysts’, who were looking for sales of $292 million and a loss […]
Trade Drops as Wiley Continues to Grow
Wiley reported sales of $402 million for the first quarter of fiscal year 2009, up three percent. Adjusted net income of $30.2 million benefited from lower debt financing costs on the big Blackwell’s acquisition and a $4.6 million insurance settlement. CEO William Pesce notes in the release that the year “began as expected. Scientific, Technical, Medical, and Scholarly and Higher Education reported year-on-year growth, while Professional/Trade was down from last year’s strong first quarter.” The professional/trade line had $102 million in sales, down three percent from a year ago, as contribution to profit fell 24 percent to $19.5 million. “A […]