Nook Media–the entity formed in 2012 that owns Barnes & Noble’s Nook business and their college bookstores–has its second major strategic investor, joining Microsoft: As of December 21 Pearson agreed to invest $89.5 in cash for a 5 percent equity stake. The bookseller paired an announcement about that investment with a preview of holiday sales that indicates “results will be below expectations” and Nook in particular will not meet their previous projections for the fiscal year. Perhaps because of that performance, Pearson is buying in to Nook Media at essentially the same the valuation given to the company when Microsoft […]
Finance
HarperCollins Financials Revealed As Part of News Corp Spinoff Procedure
With News Corp.’s proposed spinoff of its publishing unit, aka New News Corp (the other division will be renamed Fox Group) moving forward, the company filed proxy documents with the SEC late Thursday outlining the scope of the proposed spinoff and revealing financial performance data for HarperCollins, after holding back on numbers ever since the close of fiscal 201o. For the most recent quarter, which ended September 30 (their fiscal first quarter), Harper reported sales of $352 million, up 17 percent from $301 million in 2011–largely because of the acqusition of Thomas Nelson in July, at the beginning of the […]
Scholastic to Take Charge Against “Active” Staff Reductions
In yesterday’s conference call with investors following their disappointing second quarter results, Scholastic explained further some of their planned cost-cutting measures. They “have implemented a hiring freeze and are actively reducing staff levels in some areas, such as Book Clubs.” As a result, the company expects to take a “charge of approximately $10 million to $15 million in the second half of the year related to this cost-reduction initiative.” They also will not pay management bonuses for the current fiscal year.
Overseas Regulatory Filing Reveals New Details on Proposed Penguin Random House Merger
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 […]
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 […]