Kobo has launched their subscription reading service Kobo Plus in Canada, three and a half years after starting with subscriptions in Holland and Belgium. The company notes, “Rakuten Kobo recognizes books as the next frontier for subscriptions in Canada. Further, Kobo has seen demand for this service in global markets.” It is priced at $9.99…
Finance
Briefs
Donald Trump remains remarkably effective at boosting the sales of books he tries to block. As of June 30 Simon & Schuster told the court they had printed and started shipping approximately 75,000 copies of Mary Trump‘s TOO MUCH AND NEVER ENOUGH — and yesterday in a new afffadavit the publisher said they have printed…
CJK Buys Quad’s Versailles Facility
After a long eight months of trying to sell their money-losing book printing business, Quad has finally sold just one of their plants to one of the most logical buyers. The assets of their 1 million square foot book printing facility in Versailles, KY have been sold to CJK Group, which will operate the plant…
Barnes & Noble Education Investor Nominates New Directors, While Hoping for An Outright Sale
Outerbridge Capital Management, with a 13.5 percent stake in Barnes & Noble Education that’s deeply underwater, said in an SEC filing it would nominate four alternate directors to the board of the company “to unlock its immense potential.” Outerbridge paid approximately $22.2 million to acquire their shares, now worth less than half that. They say…
UK Wholesaler Bertram’s Is In Bankruptcy Liquidation
As long expected and feared, UK wholesaler Bertram’s has gone into bankruptcy administration and is well down the road of liquidating. The “majority” of its 459 employees have been fired effectively immediately “with a small number retained to manage the winding down of operations.” Some sales of the parts are in already in process, including…
Activist Investor Cevian Capital Discloses Stake in Pearson
Pearson’s stock jumped 12 percent Friday on the news that Cevian Capital, one of Europe’s largest activist investors, had built a 5.4 percent stake in the company. The news was made public via a regulatory filing from the Swedish fund late yesterday. The fund bought the stake to influence Pearson’s choice of a new chief…