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 […]
Finance
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 […]
Amazon Breaks Out UK Sales–At Nearly £3 Billion In 2011
The investigation by the UK’s House of Commons into multinational companies that pay little or no income tax to the British government on considerable revenues generated from UK customers has produced at least a little something tangible. Earlier in the month Amazon broke out for the first time sales from Amazon.co.uk over the past three years. (The committee document–found via the Bookseller–suggests they thought it was provided “on a confidential basis.”) Amazon’s UK sales were £2.910 billion in 2011; £2.360 billion in 2010; and £1.865 billion in 2009. Their Luxembourg subsidiary collected and remitted £416 million in UK VAT in […]
Scholastic Cuts Profit Forecast Sharply, Citing Multiple Factors
After riding high on movie-driven sales of The Hunger Games, Scholastic has swung the other way, warning investors of multiple weaknesses in their business. In an announcement late Tuesday, Scholastic cited “lower curriculum product sales in its Educational Technology and Services segment,” as funds move to training in advance of the Common Core standards implementation–but also blamed on “a delay in purchasing decisions due to continued uncertainty regarding the federal budget.” Their book club business has also softened, both because of now “lower than anticipated US sales of The Hunger Games trilogy” and the impact of Hurricane Sandy. As result, […]
News Corp. Said to “Express Interest” In Acquiring Simon & Schuster
After expressing at least theoretical interest in bidding for Penguin when that merger deal was all but finalized, News Corp. has reportedly moved to the next most likely potential target: Simon & Schuster. The WSJ, which often has a good line on parent company News Corp.’s strategy, is clear in their lead that the company simply “has expressed interest to CBS about acquiring its Simon & Schuster book business,” which is a soft starting point. To underscore that, “the people described the talks as preliminary and cautioned that a deal isn’t imminent.” But it does indicate that News Corp. remains […]