RR Donnelley said as part of its second quarter earnings reports that the company intends to divide itself into “three independent, publicly traded companies: one business focused on financial communications and data services; one business focused on publishing and retail-centric print services; and one business focused on customized multichannel communications management.” The split is expected to be completed some time before the end of 2016. CEO Thomas J. Quinlan III said in the announcement, “Over the last decade, we have strengthened our business portfolio through a combination of organic growth and strategic acquisitions, developing new products and services, inventing fresh ways […]
Finance
Recorded Books Is Sold to Another Private Equity Owner
Wasserstein & Co. has sold Recorded Books — which incorporates their earlier purchases of HighBridge Audio and Tantor Media — to LA-based private equity firm Shamrock Capital Advisors. Shamrock’s investment portfolio includes Isolation Network, the parent company of INScribe Digital. Terms were not disclosed, though Wasserstein was thought to have paid approximately $25 million for Tantor Media at the beginning of this year. Dow Jones says that Shamrock typically invests anywhere from $15 million up to $100 million. The price was not released when Wasserstein first bought Recorded Books from Haights Cross in 2014, either. In the last reported data, […]
Barnes & Noble Officially Splits
Barnes & Noble split itself into two separately, publicly-owned companies on Monday. Shares in the retail bookseller began trading at about 65 percent of the value of the previously combined operations, with a market cap of about $1.3 billion, while shares at Barnes & Noble Education dropped below their “when issued” trading level from last week, priced at around $12.65 a share in early morning trading. (With fewer shares outstanding than BKS, BNED is pointing to a market cap of a little over $600 million.)
International: PRH Australia Sells Bookworld to Booktopia; Harper Brasil, With Ediouro; Harlequin UK Layoffs From Harper Consolidation
Penguin Random House Australia has sold Bookworld, the online bookseller that operates two sites based on the former Borders Australia and Angus & Robertson assets, to their larger rival Booktopia. The sale is expected to increase Booktopia’s sales from $54 million (AU) in 2014 to an estimated $90 million by the end of 2015. Amazon is thought to sell $250 million to $300 million of books to Australia annually. Terms were not disclosed but PRH Australia had “paid less than $5 million for the assets of Borders and A&R after the collapse of their parent, REDgroup Retail,” rebranding as Bookworld the following year. […]
Merger Negotiations, Italian Style
After a 10-hour meeting, the board of Italy’s RCS Media Group provided a polite, positive but inconclusive step forward on Mondadori’s bid to purchase RCS’s book publishing division — a process which began in February. The board “unanimously agreed to mandate the chief executive officer to proceed with the negotiations and the definition of the contractual terms,” at the same time “reserving its final decision regarding the disposal of the asset.” With Italian August vacation looming, that decision is not expected at least until September. For the first six months of 2015, in reporting preliminary results, RCS said “publishing revenue remained stable, […]
Market Mulls Barnes & Noble Split
Barnes & Noble officially spins off Barnes & Noble Education as a separate, publicly-traded company next Monday, when we’ll start to get a clearer view of how investors value the two distinct parts. The company itself declared BNED worth 38.7 percent of the whole — since each BKS stockholder gets .632 shares of the new spin-off company as a dividend. But BNED began provisional “when issued” trading last week. There has been very little action in those shares, which is not so unusual, but in the limited market, the price has dropped 8.5 percent, to $13.50 a share. With 48 […]