With Hachette Book Group very much in the news lately, it’s interesting to have a deeper view of the company’s business and forward strategy — and they kindly provided just that at the end of May. No one seems to have taken note of the Lagardere investor day presentation in Paris on May 28 (while we were at BEA), but they likely will following this piece. Though most articles on HBG USA in the context of their standoff with Amazon describes them as the smallest of the Big Five, the company puts itself at No. 4. (They say they have 5.8 […]
Finance
Another Amazon Terms Dispute — With DVD Distributor
Amazon is engaged in another dispute over terms that has resulted in the etailer declining to accept pre-orders for popular product. In this case, the standoff is with Warner Home Video, and among the top titles unavailable for DVD pre-order is The Lego Movie, set for June 17 release. The NYT notes, “Amazon started refusing preorders for the Time Warner movies in mid-May. That frustrated some customers, who voiced their displeasure on its forums.” One Amazon customer posted on May 20, “Something weird seems to be going on with Warner Bros. pre-orders. Loads of them are not available anymore, and […]
Gowda Sells Remaining Books-A-Million Stake
Late Friday Books-A-Million reported to the SEC that it agreed to repurchase the remaining 304,000 common stock shares held by Harsha Gowda at $2.15 a share a day after buying back 655,596 shares for the same per share price. Despite reducing the company’s float by about 6.5 percent, BAMM shares have declined, trading between $2.02 and $2.07 a share. Gowda, who runs BlueShore Global Equity Fund, told us: “I wish Books-a-Million management the best and I see them managing the decline in physical book retail successfully. My sale was primarily to pursue other investments for my Fund.”
Books-A-Million Buys Back Shares From Investor Gowda
Books-A-Million noted in a filing with the SEC on Friday that it has agreed to buy back 655,596 of common stock held by investor Harsha Gowda at a price of $2.15 a share. The company is paying a 3 cent discount off of the trading price from Tuesday though shares opened today at below $2.00. The bookseller’s stock has been very lightly traded recently, with daily volume of under 10,000 shares trading hands. Gowda, who runs BlueShore Global Equity Fund out of Florida (and, originally, New Jersey), first bought a stake in BAMM in December 2011, when he acquired more than […]
Hachette Book Group Announces Layoffs
Approximately 28 employees were let go by Hachette Book Group on Thursday (which termed the cutbacks as about 3 percent of total staff, without indicating an exact number), according to people familiar with internal announcement. Reductions were made throughout the company, rather than focused on any particular department, and they included some well-known longtime employees and people at the vice president level, plus at least three well-known, longstanding editors. (Per our informal policy, we’re inclined to only list names if people want their departures known.) While the job cuts will be viewed in the context of the current standoff with Amazon — and are likely […]
Byliner Admits to Authors It’s Seeking A Sale
Further to our own report from last week that Byliner has been looking for a buyer (and has strongly suggested that it will not be able to continue business for long without a sale or new investment), the company sent an email to authors on Tuesday. “As for our own story, it’s undergoing some changes,” it says in a letter signed The Byliner Team. “We’ve struggled to reach the level of growth we’d been hoping for the business, and thus we’ve begun conversations with possible partners about the future of Byliner. We’re working to find a good home for our […]