Pearson issued a brief first quarter trading update, in advance of their annual meeting. Sales rose 3 percent overall in the period, at £1.16 billion, up 11 percent on a constant-exchange-rate basis. The company expects profits in the first half of this fiscal year to be lower than a year, with income “heavily weighted to the second half” and comparisons that include the previous sale of their stake in FTSE International. They expect Penguin to “perform in line with its industry this year” (which usually means low growth). The unit “will benefit from its consistently strong publishing schedule, which is […]
Publishers
McGraw-Hill Says They Are On Track To Spin Off Education Unit By Year’s End
McGraw-Hill reported first quarter earnings Tuesday morning, with some small updates on the company’s plan to spin off the education unit and save approximately $100 million in costs by the end of the year. The IRS is reported to have agreed to tax-free status for the spinoff, and McGraw-Hill will officially file certain details of the plan “in the coming weeks.” Adjusted net income from continuing operations–the measure the company would like Wall Street to focus on (which excludes one-time charges of about $33 million relating to the spinoff)–was $144 million, up 19 percent and ahead of estimates. Sales rose […]
Sales Fall Again At Courier’s Publishing Unit, With Signs of Rebound at Dover
Courier reported fiscal second quarter sales, with their publishing division declining 5 percent to $9.6 million. They had an operating loss of $1.1 million, but that’s an improvement over a loss of $2 million this time last year, when they took a $750,000 bad-debt charge due to the Borders bankruptcy. Their REA test-prep business was the only profitable unit during the quarter, even though sales fell 5 percent. And online sales helped Dover revenues increase 5 percent in the period. Creative Homeowner continues its sharp decline, with sales down 34 percent. Among new initiatives, they are planning a spring launch […]
Random House Profit Increases as Bertelsmann Plans To Reshape Company In Next 5-10 Years
Bertelsmann released its full-year earnings statement for 2011, and for Random House the numbers correspond to the trend at other large houses: Revenue fell €79 million or 4.3 percent to €1.749 billion compared to last year, while EBIT rose 6.9 percent to €185 million, compared to €173 million the previous year. The company also recorded “record triple-digital-percentage” digital revenue growth and a “surging demand” for Random House ebooks helped by the “increasing availability of lower-priced e-reading devices and tablets” that offset declines in print sales. (2011 was also the year Random House switched to agency model pricing in the US.) […]
Connecticut Court Ruling Says Scholastic Book Clubs Liable For Sales Tax
One week after issuing third quarter results, Scholastic issued a statement saying that the company needed to revise its earnings report after they were notified that the Connecticut Supreme Court “had reversed an earlier trial court decision and found that Scholastic Book Clubs was liable for sales taxes relating to the operation of its school book clubs business in Connecticut.” The Hartford Courant reported that the unanimous ruling, issued on March 19, said Scholastic “owes $3.2 million plus interest and penalties going back to 1995 to the state,” based on the Book Clubs division having enough of a presence in […]
Hunger Games Sales Drive Big Sales Gain At Scholastic
Led by strong sales of The Hunger Games trilogy, Scholastic reported sharply higher sales for the third quarter of $467 million, up 22 percent from a year ago, and a much smaller seasonal loss of $3.2 million, or 10 cents per share, compared to 81 cents a share (or $25.1 million) a year ago. The publisher’s stock jumped over 20 percent (or more than $7 a share) in early trading on Thursday on the improved results and increased full-year guidance. If sustained, it will be the highest Scholastic’s shares have traded since 2002. Besides Hunger Games, for which “sales of […]