As expected, RR Donnelley has bested Quad/Graphics in acquiring Courier Corp. after making a higher bid. The two companies announced they have entered into a material agreement for Donnelley to buy Courier at $23 a share — or about $15 million more than Quad/Graphics offered last month. The new agreement, which is set to close in the middle of the year, “represents a mix of approximately 49 percent cash and 51 percent stock, and a total transaction value of approximately $261 million, plus the assumption of Courier’s net debt and payout of outstanding equity awards,” according to the joint announcement. Donnelley president and […]
Finance
In Restructuring, Centre Lane Takes Control of Perseus LLC Funds, Including Perseus Books Group
The long, messy restructuring of the Perseus LLC private equity investments in the wake of Perseus chairman Frank Pearl’s death almost 3 years ago has come to an end. A new private equity firm, Centre Lane Partners, prevailed as the winning bidder in the auction run by advisory firm Cogent Partners, acquiring controlling interest in funds said to own or control approximately 11 different companies — including the Perseus Books Group — and now acting as manager partner for those interests. That makes Centre Lane the new entity in control of PBG, which confirmed the investment on Tuesday evening with an […]
Daily Amazon: Flame Out On Tablet Sales, Interest In Radio Shack, and More
Suspicions about broad weakness in the market for new tablets were confirmed by the latest fourth quarter Tablet Tracker report from International Data Corporation. Apple already reported that iPad sales declined to 21.4 million units in the holiday quarter, still the dominant player in the market. More surprisingly, IDC says that Amazon shipped only 1.7 million Fire tablets across the line, despite refreshing their offerings last September. By IDC’s count, Amazon’s tablet shipments were down almost 70 percent from 5.8 million units in Q4 2013. Similarly, the company estimates Amazon shipped only 3.3 million tablets all year last year, down […]
Briefs: R&L Acquires Distributed Line; Borderlands to Close, Blaming Minimum Wage Law
Rowman & Littlefield announced it has acquired the assets of cookbook publisher Gooseberry Patch, which has been a longtime distribution of R&L’s National Book Network (NBN). Gooseberry Patch will operate as part of Globe Pequot, which R&L acquired in 2014, and Gooseberry coo Liz Plotnick-Snay will continue to oversee the line of over 200 titles. San Francisco bookstore Borderlands announced on its website that it plans to close “no later than March 31,” blaming the city’s new minimum wage law passed last November. “Although all of us at Borderlands support the concept of a living wage in principal and we believe that it’s […]
Andersons Offer to Take Books-A-Million Private — For Less Than Dropped 2012 Proposal
With Books-a-Million stock languishing since last summer, trading for around $1.70 a share, on Thursday evening the controlling Anderson family offered again to buy out the other shareholders and take the company private. The non-binding proposal from executive chairman Clyde Anderson on behalf of the family offers $2.75 a share for the shares. In April 2012 the family offered to pay $3.05 a share. After shareholders objected to what they considered too low a price, in July 2012, “after discussing the proposal with the special committee of the company’s board of directors and its advisors, the Anderson family…decided not to pursue […]
Germany’s Txtr Files for Insolvency
German ebook solutions and services provider Txtr filed for insolvency proceedings with a German District Court, which has appointed a provisional administrator to oversee the sale of the company’s assets. People familiar with the situation say that Txtr had been exploring a sale in recent months, and it’s now expected that their assets will be sold from within the bankruptcy estate. In a statement, Txtr said it is working with Olswang Restructuring Solutions and “will continue to search for an acquirer,” indicating that “a number of companies have expressed interest in txtr’s business, technology, organization and user base.” For now, the company says, “there is […]