The proposed Penguin Random House merger is subject to review and approval by regulatory agencies in several countries — including the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and China — which is one which is why the deal is not expected to close at least until the second half of 2013. Papers were filed with New Zealand’s Commerce Commission on December 19 and made public (with some redactions), providing a few more tidbits of interest. Should the deal be approved, Penguin Random House would actually “operate through two entities” rather than just one: a Delaware corporation “that will own Bertelsmann […]
Finance
Wiley Takes Writedown On Weak Interest In Trade Assets; Reduces Earnings Guidance
Wiley’s second quarter earnings report comes clean about the weakness of the trade publishing assets they have been trying to sell. The second deal–in which Houghton Mifflin Harcourt bought their culinary line and the CliffsNotes and Webster’s New World Dictionary businesses–yielded just $11 million. Wiley has taken a writedown of “approximately $16 million,” reflecting a reduced value for both the assets bought by HMH as well as the “realizable value” of the grab-bag of other trade books still up for sale, which includes titles on pets, crafts, nautical and general interest. That loss is balanced by a $10 million gain […]
BN Closed Tikatok; Faces Further PIN Pad Inquiries and Another Possible Patent Fight
Barnes & Noble’s latest quarterly filing unusually contained a few interesting nuggets that were not announced when the company first reported basic earnings information for the period. They “decided to shut down the operations of Tikatok,” the online children’s writing platform, and took an impairment charge of $1.97 million on the closure. BN bought Tikatok three years ago for $2.3 million “as part of its overall digital strategy, expanding the company’s reach to additional parents, educators and librarians.” On the plus side, after the quarter closed, in November they received their first operating payment from Microsoft as part of the new […]
Meet the New News Corp., As Publishing Spinoff Looms
News Corp. set many of the wheels in motion to spin off a separate publishing company sooner than previously expected, announcing this morning the new unit will keep the News Corp name while the entertainment division will go forward as The Fox Group. Robert Thomson will be ceo of the new publishing-focused News Corp., which will include HarperCollins, as of January 1. He has spent the past five years as Dow Jones editor-in-chief and managing editor of the Wall Street Journal. As previously announced, Rupert Murdoch will be chairman of the new News Corp. while also remaining ceo and chairman of […]
Simon & Schuster Pairs with Penguin’s Author Solutions for Archway Self-Publishing Service
Simon & Schuster is joining other publishers such as Thomas Nelson and Harlequin in pairing with Author Solutions–now owned by Penguin/Pearson–to offer its own self-publishing service. (Now that Nelson is owned by HarperCollins, that connects ASI to three of the largest trade publishers.) The service, operated by ASI under license, brings back the old Archway brand and will be known as Archway Publishing. (Archway was an S&S line of young adult paperbacks, which published lines including Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys.) It will be overseen through Simon & Schuster digital, with S&S business development executive Devu Gandhi serving as […]
McGraw-Hill Education Sale to Apollo Finally Confirmed, for $2.5 Billion
McGraw-Hill is finally unloading their shrinking education publishing division–which is what their shareholders preferred all along–selling it to private equity firm Apollo Global Management for $2.5 billion. The deal is expected to close quickly, either before the end of the year or in early 2013. (Apollo co-founder Leon Black’s family recently purchased Phaidon.) Apollo has been considered the leading prospect since July. McGraw Hill’s stock rose this morning on relief that fixing the education division will become someone else’s problem. Even though the company will take a non-cash impairment charge in the fourth quarter of $450 to $550 million related […]