UK publisher Haynes is restructuring in the face of declining results and a changing market. The company will move from its current headquarters in Somerset to “more suitably sized premises” and is exiting the distribution market. CEO Eric Oakley said, “The book distribution market has changed significantly. The investment that would be needed to upgrade the UK facility for the requirements of a modern day logistics operation would far outweigh the future benefit to the business.” What the company calls a “relatively small number of roles” will be eliminated as part of the moe. The company reported annual sales of […]
Finance
Moonves Likes S&S Under His Dome
CBS ceo Les Moonves spoke to investors at yesterday’s Bank of America Merrill Lynch Media, Communications and Entertainment Conference. The focus of his reported remarks was to underscore that their standoff with Time Warner Cable would have no effect on their earnings. But Moonves did also specifically say what his publisher has told us in the past: “We have no intention of selling Simon & Schuster.” (Yes, we know publishing word parsers will focus on “intention.”) The publisher’s relationships helped contribute to the parent company’s overall success this summer with the special Under the Dome series on CBS, based on […]
Barnes & Noble Postpones International Rollout Again
Barnes & Noble’s promised international expansion of Nook stores has been quietly postponed again. The last time the company delayed their timeline was in late July, in their delayed annual SEC report, which stated, “the company now expects expansion into these 10 markets to be accomplished by the end of 2013.” Now their new SEC report for the first quarter of fiscal 2014 pushes that target forward another 4 months, saying “it now expects expansion into these 10 markets to be accomplished by the end of fiscal 2014.” As a result of the continued delays, they may face a financial penalty […]
Chicago Court Dismisses PIN Code Skimming Lawsuit Against Barnes & Noble
A federal court in Chicago dismissed a lawsuit filed against Barnes & Noble in October 2012 over the skimming of customer PIN codes from credit-card readers at stores in New York, California and seven other states, Bloomberg reports. The original suit, filed by Chicago customer Elizabeth Nowak and later consolidated with three other complaints for class-action seeking status, alleged that BN, by failing to disclose the PIN pad scam to customers for six weeks, was in “breach of an implied contract to protect that information and violation of Illinois consumer fraud laws” and that the company’s “security failures enabled the […]
Briefs: Bloomsbury Buys Legal Publisher; Consumer Settlement Payout Rises
Bloomsbury has acquired Oxford-based legal publisher Hart Publishing for £6.5 million in cash. The company says the unit is expected to “be immediately earnings enhancing.” The purchase is the latest step in their standing promise to boost academic and professional revenues to 50 percent of company sales within 5 years. It also nearly exhausts their cash resources for acquisitions. As of June 30, the company reported cash reserves of £8.5 million. The estimated per-book payouts to ebook consumers as a result of the legal settlements has been increased. Amazon has received attention for an informational post on their forums and email […]
Sourcebooks Makes Their Biggest Acquistion Yet
Earlier this summer Sourcebooks acquired Simple Truths, a nearly $10 million publisher you’ve probably never heard of — and until recently, Sourcebooks founder and ceo Dominique Raccah had not heard of them either, even though Simple Truths is based a few blocks away from Sourcebooks in Naperville, IL. (They were brought together by a local magazine.) One reason Simple Truths is little-known inside trade publishing, and a big reason Sourcebook was interested in the company, is that nearly all of their book sales are made directly, online through their own site and through corporate sales. Simple Truths publishes motivational and […]