F+W Media continues its expansion by acquiring Aspire Media, parent company of digital art and craft enthusiast media company Interweave, from private equity firms Frontenac Company, Catalyst Investors, Clay Hall, and several members of the Interweave management team. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but F+W ceo David Nussbaum calls it “a transformative acquisition” that “makes us a dominant player in craft and art in books, magazines, ecommerce, and ultimately online TV and other initiatives.” The new units will make F+W 30 percent larger in revenues. Frontenac managing director Walter Florence has joined the F+W Media board of directors, while Interweave ceo […]
Finance
Sales Rise at OUP As Profits Diminish
Also reporting results, Oxford University Press issued their annual report, saying sales of £695 million for the year ending March 31 2012, up by 7 percent over the previous year’s £648.6 million, boosted by a 16 percent gain in emerging markets. But pre-tax profit of £115 million for the year was down £7.5 million from a year ago, and the company transferred £53 million to the University of Oxford to fund its operations. Chief Executive Nigel Portwood says in the announcement: “We faced difficult market conditions last year, but nevertheless developed some truly innovative publishing which will help support the […]
Osprey Acquires Duncan Baird and Watkins Publishing; DreamWorks Said to Bid for Classic Media
Osprey Group has acquired Duncan Baird Publishers, which focuses on illustrated books in the fields of food, health and well-being, mind, body and spirit, culture, religion and faith, including its Watkins Publishing unit (which Duncan Baird originally bought in 2004.) Duncan Baird’s total sales in 2011 were £5.5m while Osprey Group’s sales were £7m. “We are absolutely thrilled to welcome Duncan Baird and Watkins into the group,” Osprey Group ceo Rebecca Smart said in a statement. “Duncan has created a really strong business in the growing lifestyle and transformation publishing areas and has also worked on strengthening the Watkins name. We plan […]
Anderson Family Withdraws Offer to Take Books-a-Million Private
The Anderson family announced on Tuesday evening that it “has withdrawn the previously announced non-binding proposal to acquire all of the outstanding publicly-held shares” of Books-a-Million. They say that “after discussing the proposal with the special committee of the company’s Board of Directors and its advisors, the Anderson family has decided not to pursue the proposed acquisition at this time.” Shortly after the $3.05-a-share offer was made in late April, a raft of investor lawsuits were filed challenging the offer. Investors believed the offer, which provided a 20 percent premium over the share price at the time it was made, […]
A Look at the SEC’s Correspondence with Barnes & Noble Over Agency and Sterling
Newly appearing in our RSS feed of SEC filings for Barnes & Noble is batch of correspondence from this spring that appears to have been previously confidential in which the government asked for a series of clarifications in BN’s public financial statements. (The most recent document is actually dates from mid-June.) One interesting area of discussion is the SEC’s desire for more specific information about BN’s agency ebook sales. They wrote: “We note your disclosure that certain digital content is distributed under an agency pricing model in which publishers set fixed prices for eBooks and that you receive a fixed […]
BBC Takes a Second Writedown (And A Reorganization Charge) on Lonely Planet
The BBC took a second writedown against the value of publishing unit Lonely Planet for the fiscal year ending as of the end of March, taking a £16.1 million “charge to the income statement.” It’s the second time the broadcaster has taken a charge because of the travel publisher–the previous writedown, of just under £34 million, was revealed this time a year ago (hence some headlines this week talking about a £50 million charge). Last year the impairment was blamed on both the rising Australian dollar and the bankruptcies of major booksellers; this year the BBC focuses again on the […]