Barnes & Noble, Inc. founder Leonard Riggio, 75, announced he will retire in September from his position as executive chairman — after the annual shareholder meeting — though he intends to remain on the company’s board of directors. Riggio still controls 17.5 percent of Barnes & Noble’s shares (with Abrams Capital Management as the company’s second-largest holder, now with almost 14 percent of the stock). Paul Guenther, a board member since 2015 and former president of Paine Webber, will serve as BN’s nonexecutive chairman after Riggio’s retirement. “I’m no longer going to be in charge. I’m done with that. I’m done with being top […]
Finance
Google Play Gains Again, Even As Earnings Are Below Analysts’ Estimates; Apple China iBooks Shutdown Confirmed
The headline from Thursday afternoon’s earnings release from Alphabet/Google was that earnings came in below analysts’ expectations, with first quarter sales of $20.3 billion up 17 percent. In the segment we follow, the glamorous “Other revenue” that incorporates the Google Play store, sales of $2.1 billion were up 24 percent (though 1 percent below the previous, holiday quarter). In the investor conference call, the company said, “Year-over-year performance was driven by Play as well as continued strong growth in cloud and apps and a nice contribution from hardware.” Apple‘s earnings report was postponed until next week. In the meantime, the […]
Amazon Wins NYC Education Contract, Bloomberg Says Prime Same-Day Delivery Excludes Black Neighborhoods
Amazon has won a contract with New York’s Department of Education to supply ebooks to students through a special marketplace site. The deal is worth approximately $30 million over the first three years, and the city has an option to extend the contract for another two years, worth an additional $34.5 million or so. The WSJ says Amazon is expected to make a commission of between 10 percent and 15 percent on the sales. Separately, Bloomberg has an extensive analysis of zip codes served by Amazon’s expanding Prime Same-Day Delivery service — suggesting that the rollout is favoring areas where […]
Baker & Taylor and Bookmasters Are Sold to Follett
Leading library wholesaler Baker & Taylor has been sold to Follett Corporation, announced in a press release on Monday, “creating the world’s preeminent single source of curated content and multimedia for librarians and educators.” B&T’s private equity owners Castle Harlan have sold their related company Bookmasters to Follett as well, according to posted FAQs from the distributor and printer. They bought Bookmasters in 2013 and had been running it as a separate company in “strategic partnership” with B&T. For their part, Bookmasters says that following the sale they “are positioned to be an even stronger provider of premier integrated book publishing services.” Follett says that together […]
Penguin Random House Reportedly Talking to Banks About DK Sale
The UK’s Sky News reported that it “understands that [Penguin Random House] has been in talks with investment banks about advising on an auction of Dorling Kindersley.” They add, “Sources said that Penguin Random House was ‘exploring’ a sale and that it could decide not to pursue a formal auction.” There have been no other confirming reports from additional outlets yet. A PRH spokesperson provided Sky News with the standard response: “While we don’t comment on rumors and speculation, it is business as usual at DK, which remains an important and valued member of our Penguin Random House family.” (Last September […]
People, Etc.
Malcolm Bouzi has joined Open Road as junior front end developer. Previously he was a web developer at the Araca Group. Farideh Koohi-Kamali has joined Peter Lang Publishers as senior vice president. She succeeds Christopher Myers, who has left the company after over 25 years as managing director and education editor. Koohi-Kamali spent the past 14 years as editorial director of Palgrave Macmillan’s US academic program. New Ventures Hachette Book Group announced it has sold 51 percent of its Yen Press manga imprint to Japanese publisher Kadokawa, creating a joint venture, overseen by publisher and managing director Kurt Hassler. The […]