After more than eight months of contention, Barnes & Noble and Simon & Schuster have resolved their terms dispute, which agents, authors and some at the publisher itself say resulted in significantly reduced orders and display of S&S books in the bookseller’s stores since January. In a joint statement both Barnes & Noble and S&S said they “look forward to promoting great books by Simon & Schuster authors.” A letter to authors and agents from ceo Carolyn Reidy elaborated a little more on the resolution. Reidy thanked them for their support “during this most difficult period”, adding that she and […]
Finance
Briefs: More Funding for Open Road; Commonwealth Book Prize Discontinued; And More
Open Road Integrated Media announced it has received $11 million in Series C funding led by private equity group NewSpring Capital (whose technology fund NewSpring Growth Capital III supplied $8 million) with existing investors Kohlberg Ventures, Azure Capital, and Golden Seeds joining NewSpring in the financing, bringing the total amount Open Road has raised to $24 million. On Open Road’s blog ceo Jane Friedman said the new funding will be used for new technology, additional revenue streams, expand their International Publishing Partners Translation Program (which includes 8 partners to date) and further investment in “appropriate content and technology companies.” Andrea […]
Sale of IMG Begins In Earnest
The long-expected sale of IMG Worldwide is now underway, the WSJ reports, with Morgan Stanley and Evercore running the offer on behalf of Forstmann Little. CAA and its private-equity backer TPG is one potential bidder; William Morris (with capital from their backer Silver Lake) is considered a possible bidder as well. Not mentioned in the WSJ story is Lagardere. They are IMG’s major rival in sports marketing and representation, and the conglomerate has expressed interest in acquiring IMG in the past. (By the same token, a talent agency acquiring IMG would find themselves Lagardere’s rival in sports.)
Digital: May 2014 Apple Trial; Late-August Kobo Event; Chegg Files for An IPO
Judge Denise Cote formally set the damages trial against Apple in the ebook pricing case for May 2014. Also, the full transcript from the August 9 conference on the proposed injunction has been posted. “What I’m trying to do here is to fashion as narrow a remedy as possible to create, restore, promote, price competition in ebooks,” Judge Cote. “We do need an injunction here. There was blatant price fixing. There was structural collusion by the publisher defendants.” She acknowledges again that agency by itself is a legal selling arrangement — but she also clearly prefers a world in which […]
People, Etc.
Director of publicity for Bloomsbury Children’s and Walker Children’s Katy Hershberger is leaving. She will start next week as an associate director of publicity for Simon & Schuster Children’s, as well as the Atheneum, and Margaret McElderry Books imprint. Following the sale of AP Watt to United Agents late last year, Derek Johns will retire at the end of November. He has been at AP Watt since 1992. At Harlequin’s Mira, Tara Parsons has been promoted to editorial director. Casey Maloney joined Picador as senior publicist. She was most recently a publicist at Penguin, working on the Gotham, Avery, Viking […]
Houghton Files SEC Papers for $100 Million IPO
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt formally filed a preliminary prospectus with the SEC last Friday, preparing to offer shares to public worth up to $100 million. As reported earlier, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are the lead underwriters, joined by Citigroup, Credit Suisse and Wells Fargo. None of the proceeds will go to the company however; this offering is all returning some cash to HMH’s backers, and giving them a liquid public market to trade (and value) their shares. Houghton will not formally release second quarter 2013 results until later this month, on August 15 — though they essentially disclosed those results […]