The SEC’s two investigations into accounting issues at Barnes & Noble have provoked at least one shareholder lawsuit, filed in New York State Supreme Court on Wednesday. In his complaint, David Shaev accuses the bookseller’s board and several of its executives of breaching fiduciary duties and an abuse of control. “Barnes & Noble has operated with deficient and inadequate financial reporting and inventory management systems since at least 2001,” Shaev said in his complaint. “These systems do not adhere to industrywide best practices and company internal audits have repeatedly shown them to be unreliable and subject to manipulation.” Later he […]
Finance
WME and Silver Lake Confirm IMG Acquisition
William Morris Endeavor and their private equity backers Silver Lake announced Wednesday morning they have finalized an agreement to acquire talent and sports agency IMG. WME’s co-ceos Ari Emanuel and Patrick Whitesell say in the release, “IMG has incredible strategic value to WME. The brand’s global reach, outstanding management team and leadership across sports, fashion and media are a strong complement to our business.” The announcement also notes that “Mubadala Development Company will be a minority investor in the transaction.” (It’s an investment vehicle of Abu Dhabi.) While the final price was not officially disclosed, multiple accounts had the winning bid […]
IMG Sales Near Finish; Latest Lagardere Asset Sale
The long-running auction for talent and sports agency IMG may be limping to a conclusion rather than leaping there. Final bids were due on Friday, from William Morris Endeavor (and their private equity backer Silver Lake) and the partnership between Peter Chernin and CVC Capital. (By some accounts ICM dropped out already, but the NYT thinks they are still bidding, with financing from the Carlyle Group.) But all accounts speculate that the price will fall well below the $2.5 billion to $2.7 billion that the owners were looking for. Sources are indicating the bids are in the range of $2 […]
Penguin Random House Takes Full Ownership of South Africa’s Random House Struik
Penguin Random House has taken full control over South Africa-based Random House Struik, buying out the 50.1 majority ownership stake owned by Times Media Group’s New Holland Publishing. Random House Struik came about from a 2008 merger between Random House South Africa and Struik Publishers, and the entity will “now work in close cooperation” with Penguin South Africa “with a view to integrating the businesses within Penguin Random House in 2014.” The purchase is consistent with PRH’s buyout of Penguin India’s longtime partner Ananda Publishers in October, and Random House’s acquisition a year ago of the other half of what […]
Murray Says Extra Digital Margin Is Shared By Everyone
HarperCollins CEO Brian Murray was one of many executives presenting to UBS’s annual Global Media and Communications Conference on Wednesday. (You can listen to the full webcast and view the slides via this link on the News Corp. site. The royalty discussion starts about 19 minutes and 30 seconds in.) Consistent with an investor presentation earlier in the year as News Corp. was preparing the spinoff of the freestanding company that houses Harper, Murray told investors that “the opportunities before us have never been as positive as they are today.” Among the slides, this one shows the variations in ebook […]
Riggio Sold to Book Tax Loss
After markets reacted with concern Wednesday morning over Barnes & Noble chairman Len Riggio’s block sales of 2 million shares in the company, he explained to the WSJ that the “tax planning” indicated in his SEC filing really meant he wanted to book an easy paper loss. So Riggio didn’t really care what price the shares were sold for. Selling converted a paper loss of about $40 million into an actual tax writeoff worth real money. As far as the government is concerned, he was selling shares that he acquired at what a spokesperson said was an average price of […]