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 […]
Publishers
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 […]
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 […]
Lagardere Nudges Up
Lagardere amplified their earlier report on sales the first six months of their fiscal year with slightly fuller data, with the publishing group registering sales of 908 million euros, up just 1.3 percent, with EBIT of 71 million, flat on a recurring basis from a year ago. The company cites “a respectable performance in the US, the UK and Spain, but there was a further decline in Literature in France. Part-works were affected by a drop in French and Italian sales, partly offset by good performances in the United Kingdom and Japan.” On the profits, they note “good contributions from […]