Kobo is joining with Mexican publisher and retailer Libreria Porrúa (with almost 70 bookstores) and bookstore chain Gandhi (with close to 30 stores) to power a new ereading service for Mexican readers called Orbile. They plan to launch an ebookstore in September with a catalog that will include over 70,000 titles. Both Porrúa and Gandhi will sell Kobo devices in their stores. Separately, the New York City Board of Education has a pending three-year contract with Amazon for ratification that will pay the etailer at least $30 million for ebooks selected by individual schools. Amazon will also build a “unified ebook storefront” for the […]
Education
Houghton to Buy Scholastic’s Education Technology Business for $575 Million
Scholastic announced it has signed a definitive agreement to sell its Educational Technology and Services business to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Company for $575 million in cash. Scholastic expects to have net proceeds of $360 million to $370 million after taxes, fees and expenses. The business unit they are selling had sales of $249 million, with $40 million in operating income, for the fiscal year ended May 31, 2014 — with sales of $175 million and operating income of $17 million for the first nine months of the current fiscal year. The deal is expected to close in the current calendar quarter. Scholastic says it will “focus on […]
With First Full Penguin Random House Annual Results, Dohle Says “We Are Stronger Together”
Bertelsmann reported financial results for 2014 on Tuesday morning, providing the first look at a full year’s worth of performance for the merged Penguin Random House. (A year ago, the 2013 report incorporated only six months worth of Penguin’s sales.) The trade publishing giant had combined sales of €3.324 billion for the year, including Random House Germany, which is still owned entirely by Bertelsmann outside of the PRH joint venture. Operating EBITDA rose in line with sales, to €452 million, “driven by numerous major bestsellers, especially in the field of children’s books, as well as tie-ins to popular movies and TV series and […]
Briefs: Patterson’s $1.25 Million School Library Donation; Tattered Cover Moves A Location; and More
Following on his recent seven-figure donations to independent bookstores in the US and UK, James Patterson announced a $1.25 million donation to fund grants of $1,000 to $10,000 to school libraries. To be awarded on a rolling basis throughout 2015, the funds can be used for a variety of purposes, including, for example, repairs to a computer system or a school project focused on books and reading.Scholastic Reading Club will administer funding applications to its network of 62,000 schools and 800,000 teachers, and Scholastic will match Patterson’s donation with “bonus points” that teachers can use to acquire books and materials for classroom use. […]
Trade Rebounds In Houghton’s Fourth Quarter
Helped by publication of bestselling What If, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s modest trade division saw sales rise in the fourth quarter to $48 million, up $2 million from a year ago, as the unit recorded a small net gain for the period ($500,000), compared to a small net loss a year ago. Adjusted EBITDA of $4.8 million also rose slightly, up from $4.5 million a year ago. For the full year, however, sales of $163 million were down $8 million, and the trade unit recorded a net loss of $3 million, down from net income of $6.6 million a year ago. Adjusted EBITDA of $12.7 […]
Chegg to Outsource Print Textbook Business to Ingram
Building substantially on an initiative that began last August, Chegg.com will transition the handling of all print textbook inventory over to Ingram under a renewable, five-year agreement as the company that started as a textbook rental play moves towards becoming an all-digital “student hub.” (Digital textbook rentals will become Chegg’s biggest business, in which they compete directly with Ingram’s CourseSmart, among many other players.) Chegg is positioning the move as a full reboot of the company, whose stock has languished since it went public in late 2013 — in part because Chegg has lost money since launching in 2007, and those […]