Just one week after a $200 million capital investment in former ICM chairman Jeff Berg’s new agency Resolution was disclosed publicly, Najafi Companies announced Tuesday afternoon that it sold its majority interest in Direct Brands to Pride Tree Holdings “during the last quarter of 2012.” Najafi originally bought Direct Brands, the parent company of Columbia House, Book-of-the-Month Club and other book clubs, from Bertelsmann in July 2008. Then Najafi subsequently purchased DirectGroup France, Belgium, Switzerland and Quebec from Bertelsmann in March 2011. The European entity was not announced as part of the sale to Pride Tree. Curiously, little information is […]
Finance
Corporate: Tisch Raised BN Stake to 8.1 Percent; Amazon to Mint Their Own Virtual Money
In an annual SEC filing Tuesday, investor Daniel Tisch disclosed that at some point last year he raised his stake in Barnes & Noble from 5.1 percent (originally disclosed in January 2012) to 8.1 percent, or nearly 4.9 million shares, the holdings he controlled as December 31. Two million shares are registered to Tisch’s personal investment company TowerView, while the rest of the stake is held by Four Partners, another investment company owned by all four Tisch brothers and run by Thomas Tisch, though Daniel Tisch has “sole voting power and sole investment power” over the entire BN holding. Separately, […]
Canada’s Greystone Books Bought of Bankruptcy By Heritage House; Templar Buys Piccadilly Publishing
Canada’s bankrupt D&M Publishers has sold the assets of the Greystone Books imprint, including all forthcoming books under contract, to Heritage House Publishing. The new owners are bringing back Greystone founder Rob Sanders to lead the imprint again, and Nancy Flight returns as associate publisher. Sanders will also be “a significant shareholder” in the new entity Greystone Books Ltd. Heritage House’s announcement says that their president Rodger Touchie “initiated” the purchase and was “assisted by longtime Greystone business partners, including the Perseus Books Group from New York.” PGW will continue to distribute Greystone in the US and will expand their […]
BN Hopes for An Orderly Reduction of 20 Stores A Year, For A Decade
CEO of Barnes & Noble’s retail group Mitchell Klipper reiterates the company’s expectations for an orderly slimming of their bookstore base to the WSJ. BN forecasts that they will close about 20 stores a year for the forseeable future–meaning that “in 10 years we’ll have 450 to 500 stores,” Klipper said, compared to 689 stores right now. (They reached “peak superstores” in 2008, when the chain comprised 726 BN outlets.) One key to whether that strategy plays out as predicted is their lease portfolio, since bookstores are a real estate business as much as anything. BN has a very flexible […]
Corporate: Quarto Changes to Aurum Publishing Group In UK; “Significant” Shortfall at Quercus; McGraw-Hill Education Takes 20 Percent Stake in Area9 Aps
Following the management change at The Quarto Group (with the ouster of longtime chairman Laurence Orbach, installing Tim Chadwick in his place, and the planned ascension of Marcus Leaver to ceo), they are creating a new UK publishing group, under a new name. The Aurum Publishing Group will unite the combined lists of Frances Lincoln (now fully integrated into Quarto, after the 2011 acquistion), Aurum Press, Jacqui Small, Union Books and Apple Press under as a single corporate division — and they will now all be housed in the same building, a new office in Angel, London. Aurum Press, incidentally, […]
Bookselling Briefs: WH Smith’s Decline; BN Closes Pearson Deal
UK-based WH Smith reported headline sales results for the past 20 weeks consistent with their recent pattern: High-street sales were down 5 percent (both overall and on a same-store basis), while their network of travel stores was also down 5 percent (but only 4% on a same-store basis). But they say they “delivered a good profit performance,” and at the High-street stores “gross margin improved strongly in the period.” Note the pattern in our previously clipped stories for the past year: – WH Smith Comps Down 4% (and 5% At High Street Stores) | clipped Wednesday, November 14, 2012 – […]