Barnes & Noble Education acquired Student Brands on Friday for $58.5 million in cash. Student Brands is a subscription-based writing skills services business, with properties in the US, Brazil, France and Mexico. BNED has been trying to buy its way to growth, so far without convincing investors. Earlier this year they paid the Riggios $174…
Education
Briefs: eBook Retailer Suit Rejected Again; Macmillan Learning Offers New Rental Options
Defunct ebook retailers BooksOnBoard and Diesel Books lost again in court, as the Second Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court ruling dismissing their lawsuit alleging that publishers’ introduction of the agency model for ebook pricing put them out of business. The Appeals Court wrote: “Based on the undisputed facts in the record, the…
Textbook Author Sues Pearson
Last week professor of engineering at the University of Louisiana – Lafayette and author of multiple engineering textbooks Russell Hibbeler filed suit in a Tennessee Federal Court against Pearson, alleging significant underpaid and/or unpaid royalties and charging the publisher with creating derivative works with permission and payment. (Hibbeler lives in Nashville.) The suit is of…
Barnes & Noble Education Gives Up On Yuzu
We’ve been skeptical of Barnes & Noble Education’s digital platform Yuzu since they started it in 2014, ever since we learned that a yuzu “is a hybrid citrus fruit with curiously high ratio of seeds to juice.” In reporting fiscal third quarter results on Tuesday morning, the company finally announced the end of their attempt…
Open eBooks Initiative Goes Live, with National Geographic Joining In
The Open eBooks project — a private effort inspired by President Obama as part of his larger ConnectEd initiative — has gone live, announced by the White House, with encouragement from Michelle Obama. As previously announced, the program makes available a large collection of ebooks for free to low-income students in need. Operating as a partnership among Digital Public…
Macmillan Learning Acquires Roberts & Company
The US-based educational publisher Macmillan Learning announced Monday it has acquired Roberts and Company, publisher of higher education textbooks, interactive media, and original monographs in biology, chemistry, engineering and related disciplines. Macmillan Learning ceo Ken Michaels says in the announcement, “This acquisition is core to our ability to provide educators and students robust content and cutting edge technology in…