Following Thursday’s swifter-than-expected DOJ approval of the Penguin Random House merger, we thought it instructive to check in on regulatory reviews of the deal in other countries. As we pointed out in December, Penguin Random House would, if approved, operate as two distinct entities: a Delaware corporation “that will own Bertelsmann and Pearson’s consumer businesses that operate in the USA”; and a UK-incorporated Penguin Random House that will be responsible for the additional consumer publishing businesses that operate in the rest of the world. The proposed company split may explain why the DOJ could move at a hastier speed than […]
Finance
DOJ Approves Penguin Random House Merger
The US Department of Justice has provided an unexpected Valentine to Penguin and Random House: The department notified Bertelsmann and Pearson “that it has closed its investigation into the proposed merger of Penguin and Random House, without conditions,” according to a statement from Penguin. The swift approval is remarkable, particularly since the DOJ took roughly nine months to sign off on the much smaller acquisition of Thomas Nelson by HarperCollins. (The merger deal was announced in October 2012.) That also makes the US the first country to approve the proposed merger. Review is still underway in Canada, at the European […]
Corporate: DailyLit “Joins Forces” With Plympton: Rowman & Littlefield Reorganization
DailyLit, founded in 2006, is “joining forces” with Plympton, the original serial fiction start-up created by Jennifer 8. Lee and Yael Goldstein Love. Plympton is taking over DailyLit and aims to expand it and “bring the DailyLit experience up-to-date” for mobile devices and tablets. DailyLit founders Susan Danziger and her husband Albert Wenger (a partner at Union Square Ventures) are now investors and advisors to the combined company. DailyLit has digitally serialized almost 1,000 titles. Rowman & Littlefield reports that their book publishing sales for 2012 were $50 million, up 6 percent from 2011, while their distribution businesses NBN and […]
Hedge Fund Dimensional Added to Barnes & Noble Stake; Still Holds BAMM
In another of the annual filings for those owning more than 5 percent of public companies, Texas-based hedge fund Dimensional Fund Advisors (a huge quant fund that has over $260 billion in investments) disclosed that they increased their stake in Barnes & Noble during 2012. A year ago they reported having taken a 5.45 percent position of about 3.2 million shares by the end of 2011. The new filing indicates that their stake had grown to 7.28 percent of BN stock by the end of 2012, or roughly 4.3 million shares. Barnes & Noble’s stock has risen following the disclosure […]
Canada’s D&M Sold to Harbour Publishing Owners
Bankrupt Canadian publisher D&M has agreed to sell the assets of their flagship imprint, Douglas & McIntyre to Howard and Mary White, the owners of Harbour Publishing. The sale includes all books contracted or published under the Douglas & McIntyre imprint, with a list of approximately 500 titles. Howard White tells the National Post he believes “there is more life in this beast than people thought.” Scott McIntyre says in the announcement, “The successful conclusion of first the Greystone and now the Douglas & McIntyre asset sales confirms that the quality imprints of D&M are on a solid new path for the […]
Waterstones’ First Year Under New Management Shows Big Losses
Fretting about the state of Barnes & Noble’s bookstores is put into perspective by reports from the UK on the performance of Waterstone’s. A government corporate filing showed just how badly the chain had been suffering. It’s important to underscore that the results everyone is writing about are old–they cover the fiscal year ending almost a year ago, in April 2012. The bookseller had a £25.4 million operating loss, and a £37.3 million after-tax loss. Sales fell 14 percent, down to £410.4 million, and same-store sales dropped 11.1 percent. Managing director James Daunt blamed the result on “what I inherited…. […]