Hanya Yanagihara‘s A Little Life earned its first big award win on Thursday, recipient of the Kirkus Prize for fiction, as Ta-Nehisi Coates won the nonfiction prize for Between the World and Me — and both are in contention for National Book Awards. Pam Muñoz Ryan‘s middle-grade novel Echo won the young readers’ literature prize. Longtime executive director of the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association Hut Landon was feted this week as he retires from that position. Bookselling This Week has some testimonials from colleagues and friends reflect on his passion for, and many contributions to, the bookselling community. At Zondervan, Robyn Burwell has […]
Finance
Corporate: Canongate Falls In 2014, 3M Exits Library Market
Sales at Canongate fell 24 percent in 2014, down to £7.9 million, with a pre-tax loss of £1.3 million in a “difficult and dispiriting” year. The company blamed a bad fall list, with “some very significant advance write-offs we subsequently made.” 3M sold their North American Library Services division to One Equity Partners — which owns Bibliotheca — and they have “entered into agreements” to sell the remaining global Library Systems business as well. Bibliotheca promises that the expanded group “will combine the best of both worlds to help libraries captivate their communities, providing innovative library-focused solutions that connect with people at home, at the library, and […]
Board of Directors Approves RCS Media Sale to Mondadori for 127.5 Million Euros
More than seven months after Mondadori first offered to buy RCS Media, the sale, for 127.5 million euros — less than Mondadori’s initial offer of 135 million euros– was approved by RCS’s board of directors over the weekend. The deal will still need approval from Italy’s antitrust body, which will take between 60 and 90 days. Should it go ahead the combined RCS Mondadori will account for roughly 35 percent of the Italian trade book publishing market. While Rizzoli, as well as the Bompiani, Marsilio, Fabbri, Bur, Sonzogno, ETAS imprints, will move to Mondadori ownership, as will the education unit, […]
Harper Buys Out Harlequin Mondadori Joint Venture (and News Corp. Sells Amplify), As Big Italian Merger Discussion Continues
HarperCollins announced on Wednesday the creation of its latest international branch based on top of Harlequin, HarperCollins Italia. The publisher bought out Mondadori’s 50 percent share in the 34-year-old Harlequin Mondadori joint venture. Mondadori said that Harper paid 6.7 million euros for the buyout, and each party took another 1.6 million euros in cash out of the business. The company is reported to have had sales of 9.1 million euros in 2014, with net income of 1 million euros. “The business will continue to publish romance under the iconic Harmony imprint, and expand its commercial trade publishing with titles from HarperCollins and Harlequin, as well as local authors,” the […]
Deadline Looms for Mondadori RCS Media Acquisition
Wednesday marks the day when the extension of the exclusive negotiation period runs out on Mondadori’s offer to buy the book publishing assets of RCS Media — a process that began back in February. The Italian press is treating it as a done deal, with both sides reportedly having been working hard on finalizing the details. One source says the deal will “close by the deadline barring unforeseen circumstances.” Some accounts expect the closing could slide by a few days, though one account reports that any extension would require specific board approval. Mondadori is thought to be eager to have […]
SEC Censures, Fines Glickstein For 2014 “Proposal” To Buy Out Barnes & Noble
Since 2011 the “private investment firm” G Asset Management — by all appearances a one-man shop operated by Michael Glickstein — garnered headlines by writing repeatedly to the Barnes & Noble board, proposing various splits of the company’s assets or theoretical offers to acquire control of parts or all the company itself, culminating in a press release claiming it had “made a proposal to acquire” controlling interest in the bookseller. Apparently Glickstein’s antics registered hard on the radar of the SEC, which announced Thursday afternoon sanctions against G Asset Management for issuing “a misleading news release…that claimed it had offered to purchase a majority interest in Barnes & […]