Wiley announced a strong fourth quarter and a good end to a fiscal year that included multiple restructuring charges as the company has remade itself into a “global provider of knowledge and knowledge-enabled services.” Fourth quarter sales of $457 million were up $16 million and income was significantly higher on a more normalized period, even with another $26 million in restructuring and amortization charges. Full-year sales of $1.775 billion were up $14 million, and earnings per share rose 12 percent. The stock is up in early trading on the better-than-expected report. CEO Stephen Smith says in the announcement, “We exceeded our annual […]
Publishers
Sales Rise At Bloomsbury, As Profit Softens
Bloomsbury reported results for their fiscal year ending February 28, with sales rising 11 percent of £109.5 million, but profit after tax of £9.5 million was down slightly (from £9.8 million the year before). All three major publishing divisions — adult trade; children’s and educational; and academic & professional — showed gains during the year, which “mitigated a fall in higher-margin rights and services revenues.” Those sales fell 26 percent to £8.5 million, with “fewer [copyright licensing] deals completed and at lower amounts.” Digital sales overall rose by 21 percent to £12.2 million, and now comprise 12.1 percent of revenues […]
Corporate: Sales Fall At Lagardere Publishing; HMH Buys Channel One News
First quarter sales at Lagardere Publishing fell 26 million euros (or 6.2 percent) in the first quarter, to 393 million euros, “due mostly to the comparison” to a strong quarter a year ago, which included sales of the Fifty Shades trilogy in France. Similarly, for the US unit, HBG USA ceo Michael Pietsch said they “had a tough comparison due to Q1 2013 movie tie in bestsellers of Nicholas Sparks’s SAFE HAVEN, Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl’s BEAUTIFUL CREATURES, and Stephenie Meyer’s THE HOST, but new bestsellers made up most of that ground…. Ebook sales slowed from last year’s first […]
Simon & Schuster Grows Profits Even With Sales Down 11 Percent
After a year of record profits, Simon & Schuster continued to maintain strong margins, even with declining sales, in the first quarter of 2014. Sales fell 11 percent to $153 million (down $18 million), but OIBDA was up 8 percent (or $1 million) to $13 million. Parent company CBS said that sales a year ago had “benefited from the continued success of fourth quarter 2012 releases,” though even in that quarter sales were down 3 percent from the first quarter of 2012. As CEO Carolyn Reidy told us plainly, “we didn’t have as many strong books as we did the […]
Another Good Quarter for Harper, Thanks to DIVERGENT
HarperCollins reported their fiscal third quarter, ending March 31, with sales rising 14 percent to $354 million and EBITDA gaining even more, nearly doubling to $53 million (compared to sales of $311 million and EBITDA of $29 million a year ago). As noted in the previous quarter, the company cited “the higher contribution to profits from ebooks and ongoing operational efficiencies coupled with higher revenues” for the strong earnings. Veronica Roth’s Divergent series continued to bolster sales, accounting for 8 million net units for the quarter. eBook revenues represented 26 percent of overall sales for the quarter, up 46 percent from a […]
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Has Trade Loss On Difficult Comparison, Bad Winter Weather
Sales fell at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in the first quarter of 2014, primarily because of an $8 million decline in the trade division, which had strong movie tie-in sales for The Hobbit and Life of Pi in 2013, but also because of “book store sales declines attributable to the severe winter weather conditions across the country.” As a result, the trade division recorded a net loss of $5.2 milion, and adjusted EBITDA of a loss of $1.3 million — compared to an EBITDA gain of $6.7 million a year go. Trade sales were $32 million for the period. Companywide, HMH […]