At ICM Partners, Kristyn Keene and Kari Stuart have both been promoted to agent. Keene joined the agency in 2006; Stuart has been with ICM for seven years. Alistair Burtenshaw, who left his positions at Reed Exhibitions earlier this month, will move up to chair of charity Booktrust (where he has served as deputy chair since 2008). The Smoking Gun highlights multiple lawsuits filed recently by Penguin to recover advances from authors who the publisher says never delivered their manuscripts. The suits look to recover advances and interest from: New Yorker staff writer Rebecca Mead $20,000, for a 2003 deal […]
Finance
Aspiring Quarto Director Criticizes Company As Vote Nears
The special meeting called for in July by two large shareholders in Quarto Group will be announced shortly, Sky News reports. They have been “leaked” a letter from Tim Chadwick, who the two dissenting owners–confirmed to include The Wellcome Trust (and 9.7 percent owner), and thus by elimination J.O. Hambro Capital Management (a 9.5 percent owner)–want to appoint to the board while removing chairman and ceo Laurence Orbach. Chadwick is said to insist that Quarto sell or close “all loss-making, relatively risky, or unproven activities and [use] the net proceeds to accelerate debt repayment.” He laments that the publishers’ “results […]
Corporate: Jana Drops Barnes & Noble; Bertelsmann Eyes US and Internet; Allen & Unwin Talks to Murdoch
As of August 31, Jana Partners no longer held any shares in Barnes & Noble, the company disclosed in an SEC filing on Tuesday. The investment firm, which owned 7 million shares of the bookseller when they first filed disclosure forms in April, still held a little over 4 million shares as of their most recent previous filing at the end of June. BN’s stock has been trading near a 52-week low over the past three weeks. At Bertelsmann‘s annual meeting gathering hundreds of executives companywide in Gutersloh, Germany, ceo Thomas Rabe said “the group does ‘not have all the […]
Company Source Says Idea of A Bertelsmann IPO Is Off Again; Flammarion Sells for Less; Tesco Buys Mobcast
Shortly after Bertelsmann changed its corporate structure to allow for a modest offering of shares to the public–albeit a small stake, with limited or no influence over how the company is run–a source inside the company tells Germany’s financial newspaper Handelsblatt “a flotation is off the table as the family doesn’t want an IPO.” New ceo Thomas Rabe is the one who told press in March that the organizational change “opens up the option of raising equity from third parties,” noting that “clearly if we are going to make more strategic and sizable investments, then more capital will be required.” But […]
As Expected, Amazon Acquires Bulk of Dorchester Backlist
On August 28 Amazon Publishing formally acquired the rights to more than 1000 titles published by Dorchester Publishing, ending the drawn-out saga of the mass market publisher’s longstanding financial troubles. Amazon had originally signaled its intentions to buy out contracts still under the banner of Dorchester Books (which owed nearly $3 million to owner John Backe) in a notice of disposition filed on June 27. There were no other bids. As part of the deal Dorchester authors were offered the opportunity to join Amazon Publishing and receive the full back royalties that Dorchester indicated were owed. Any authors who elected […]
Bertelsmann In Discussions to Buy Full Ownership of Gruner + Jahr
Following Bertelsmann’s corporate conversion last week to a new corporate structure that could allow the offering of stock to the public without divesting much control, Germany’s Manager Magazin ran a piece with a grab-bag of rumor and speculation. (Though partially owned by Bertelsmann’s Gruner + Jahr, the magazine has a spotty track-record in their reports on coming events at Bertelsmann.) One item that Bertelsmann has at least partially confirmed is a report that the company wants to acquire the Jahr family’s 25.1 percent stake in Gruner + Jahr, possibly by swapping them a smaller stake in Bertelsmann itself or one of […]