Kaplan Test Prep has acquired key assets of longtime rival Barron’s Educational Series, including the test prep, study aid, and foreign language assets, as well as the Barron’s brand name. The acquisition comprises about 650 of Barron’s more than 2,000 titles, also including their reference, business, and law titles. As Newsday notes, “The purchase combines…
Finance
Quarto Has Better Sales, Still with Big Loss; Bertelsmann to Buy OnCourse Learning
Quarto reported half-year results, with sales showing some improvement, as revenues rose $6 million to $56.2 million. Some of that gain reflects a shift in the “seasonal split of co-edition revenues, with a higher percentage than normal of expected full-year revenues achieved in the first half.” Their operating loss of ($7 million) was slightly improved…
Meredith to Stop Operating Oxmoor House
Meredith has changed strategy for Oxmoor House, the 40-year-old cooking and crafts trade book publisher acquired as part of their purchase of Time Inc. (which in turn had acquired Oxmoor when it bought Southern Progress in 1985). Going forward they intend to license the Oxmoor list to another trade publisher — as the company has…
Houghton to Sell Riverside Assessments
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt will reap a welcome cash infusion with the sale of their Riverside Assessments division to private equity firm Alpine Investors for $140 million. HMH plans to invest the $135 million cash proceeds “in its Extensions businesses, supporting its strategy to create integrated solutions and improve student outcomes.” The deal is expected to…
EU Parliament Vote Moves Controversial Copyright Law Forward
The EU Parliament passed the Copyright Directive, containing two controversial provisions intended to ensure publishers and content creators get paid when their content is shared on internet platforms such as Facebook, Google, and YouTube. While the vote is significant, particularly considering that Parliament rejected a different version in July — it’s far from final. As…
Barnes & Noble Pushes Back Against Shareholder’s Sale Wishes
Barnes & Noble’s stock was trading 28 cents down from Friday’s close at 10:40 Monday morning, a loss of more than 5%. On Friday, the stock had risen 75 cents a share, a gain of almost 16.5 percent, on investor Richard Schottenfeld’s expansive declaration of his hopes for a sale of the company in a…