Barnes & Noble Education, which has worked hard to perform even more poorly than the Barnes & Noble retail operation since the two split apart almost 4 years ago, now finds itself the focus of its own strange potential sale. Bay Capital Finance, which appears to be focused on real estate development, says it has been trying trying to acquire the company outright since earlier this year. On Monday, they filed suit in Delaware’s Chancery Court, asking for their nominations of five independent directors to the BNED board to be put before shareholders at the annual meeting. Bay Capital says […]
M&A
Quad’s Request For Speed Is Denied, Antitrust Trial Set for November
Judge Charles R. Norgle denied Quad’s request for an expedited trial in the DOJ’s antitrust lawsuit against the company’s planned merger with rival printer LSC. Instead, Norgle only slightly modified the Department of Justice’s proposed schedule, setting November 14 as the trial’s start date. That could be delayed, however, as he noted that “there are multiple criminal cases involving incarcerated defendants scheduled for jury trial during the fall of 2019; in the events of a scheduling conflict, these criminal trials may take priority over the bench trial in this matter.” Quad had asked the court to schedule the trial in […]
Editis to Acquire Archipel in France
France’s second-largest publisher Editis — bought by Vivendia from Planeta earlier this year — is in exclusive negotiations to acquire L’Archipel. (Generally speaking, these exclusive negotiations lead to a formal acquisition, and the parties speak about it as a done deal in their press release.) L’Archipel will remain under the direction of founder and president Jean-Daniel Belfond, who would report to Editis ceo Pierre Conte. Created in 1991, L’Archipel has a backlist of over 2,500 titles. In the machine-translated release, Belfond says, “The support of Editis, with a preserved autonomy, will allow us to devote ourselves fully to what drives […]
PRH Pays Modestly for F+W Books
Paperwork filed with the bankruptcy court overseeing the sale of F+W Media’s assets shows that Penguin Random House won the F+W Books list with a modest bid. They are paying $3 million at closing, with subsequent payments due equal to 70 percent of recent accounts receivable, plus 15 percent of the value of the printed inventory. PRH also assumes a limited set of liabilities and obligations to the assigned contracts, but only for on or after the closing of the deal. (That suggests that items like unpaid author royalties earned prior to the sale remain at the back of the […]
Sourcebooks Sells Minority Share to Penguin Random House
Sourcebooks has sold a 45-percent stake in the company to Penguin Random House, which will serve as “a collaborative investor” in the company. Sourcebooks founder and ceo Dominique Raccah will work directly with PRH US ceo Madeline McIntosh on the collaboration, with McIntosh and PRH’s Nina von Moltke to fill two of the five seats on a newly-created Sourcebooks board of directors. (Raccah, her husband Ray Bennett, and Sourcebooks svp Barbara Briel hold the other seats.) For now there will be “no changes in [Sourcebooks’] leadership, management, publishing autonomy, or entrepreneurial culture,” the joint announcement says, but the two companies […]
Wiley to Buy Knewton
Just days after the Cengage and McGraw-Hill merger announcement, Wiley announced a deal to buy the assets of ed-tech firm Knewton, in a transaction expected to close by the end of the month. The price was not disclosed — though Knewton was reportedly being offered at a “fire sale” price, with EdSurge saying, “There were other buyers bidding for Knewton’s assets, with the transaction prices discussed in the $10 million range.” One of the first big ed-tech companies, New York-based Knewton had raised over $180 in funding. “No industry analyst we spoke with believes the sale price was anywhere near […]