Self-publishing platform FastPencil has been acquired by printer and publisher Courier. The news was announced after the close of the market on Tuesday, and just ahead of Courier reporting second quarter earnings on Wednesday morning. The terms were not disclosed for now, but for Courier — with roughly $260 million in annual sales — it’s likely that the price would be considered material and will be disclosed in due time. FastPencil is a self-publishing company and provider of software tools to enable self-publishing–and recently worked in partnership with Nook on their new set of Nook Press content creation, collaboration and […]
Publishers
McGraw-Hill’s Final Report on Education
McGraw-Hill reported first quarter 2013 earnings, following the sale of their education business for $2.4 billion on March 22. The education results are covered only briefly, as a discontinued operation. They booked a net gain of $612 million on the sale of the business, and reported net income for the quarter of $582 million (reflecting an operating loss of $30 million during the period for education). McGraw-Hill also recorded separately costs of $44 million–half cash, and half non-cash charges–for professional fees and other one-time costs related to the separate of the education unit. Release
Pearson Starts Well; Quarto Is Up In the US and Down Overall
In a short first quarter trading update ahead of their annual meeting–in the British style–Pearson said overall sales were £1.2 billion, up 3 percent at constant exchange rates and 4 percent overall (but down slightly on an underlying basis). Penguin “has had a good start to the year with market share gains in all key territories boosted by bestsellers from Harlan Coben, Nora Roberts, Jamie Oliver and John Green.” The FT “is facing weak trading conditions for advertising” and otherwise their performance is in line with their forecast from last month when they reported 2012 results. Pearson In another brief […]
Profit Far Lower in Quercus’s “Year of Transition”
Quercus announced preliminary results for the full fiscal year ending December 31, reporting £1.5 million in operating profit, a sharp dropoff from the £5.9 million reported for 2011, and revenues of £20.4 million, declining from £24.8 million the previous year. The company included a £100,000 charge to set up a new American division, which will launch this fall with 25 titles scheduled. They project “a program of 86 titles” in the US in 2014, and are readying another 150 ebooks for their backlist for US release. On the growth side, ebook sales were £6.4 million, up from £2.7 million in […]
More Wiley Fallout: HMH’s “Bargain”; Harper Canada’s Buy; and Frommer Gets Back Frommer’s
It’s another fascinating day of fallout from the sales of Wiley’s trade assets. In Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s recently issued 2012 annual report, the company characterizes their acquisition of Wiley’s culinary and reference books as a “bargain purchase.” It was such a good deal, in fact, that HMH booked a special $30.8 million gain on the acquisition. They paid $11 million, but determined that “the fair value assigned to the net assets exceeded the consideration paid,” valuing the whole package at $41.8 million. That tells you something about how lean the offers were for Wiley’s properties, regardless of their value, and […]
Random House Posts Big Profits on Fifty Shades
Random House had sales of €2.142 billion (up 393 million euros, or 22 percent) and record operating EBIT of 325 million euros (a 75 percent increase over 185 million euros a year ago) in 2012, on the extraordinary sales of over 70 million copies of EL James’s Fifty Shades trilogy sold in English, German and Spanish editions. The company was strong around the world, as it “posted year-on-year increases in revenue and operating EBIT across all its territories.” Results for the second half of the fiscal year by itself were €1.195 billion in sales and operating EBIT of €212 million. At parent […]