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 […]
Finance
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 […]
Cengage Bondholders See Company Headed for Possible Restructuring
Regular readers know we have been consistently skeptical that Cengage can get out from under their gigantic debt load of almost $5.5 billion without a restructuring of those obligations, despite the company’s pretense that things are fine and they are on their way to a possible IPO. And those prospects worsened still with “very disappointing” results for the quarter ending September 30 that has operating income below quarterly debt service payments. After that earnings report Moody’s downgraded Cengage’s debt yet again, and now Bloomberg tells investors the darker side of the story: “Bondholders of Cengage Learning may recover as little […]
Results Plunge at Cengage
Cengage has a new ceo, Michael Hansen (Ron Dunn is now executive chairman), who had the unpleasant task of announcing “very disappointing” results for the quarter ending September 30 last Friday: Sales fell 22 percent to $538 million, down from $692 million a year, and operating income declined 49 percent, to $122.7 million, less than debt service for the quarter of $131 million. Among the problems cited, “a significant reduction in the level of purchases by one channel partner contributed to the decline in revenues.” Net debt stood at $5.47 billion at the end of the quarter, and all of […]
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Buys Wiley’s Culinary and Reference Books
A sale has been announced for another big package of Wiley trade properties that have been on the market since March: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has acquired all of Wiley’s culinary book assets, along with Webster’s New World Dictionary and CliffsNotes. The cookbook line includes Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything franchise and books from authors such as authors such as Rose Levy Beranbaum, Marcus Samuelsson and Ellie Krieger, along with the Betty Crocker series, a Better Homes and Gardens line licensed from Meredith Corporation. Along with the books themselves, Wiley publisher Natalie Chapman will join HMH to overse the entire […]