University of Missouri president Tim Wolfe apparently surprised staff with the announcement Thursday that the UM Press will close. Started in 1958, it currently publishes about 30 titles a year, and has issued approximately 2,000 books since its founding. Wolfe said they “take seriously our role to be good stewards of public funds, to use those funds to achieve our strategic priorities and re-evaluate those activities that are not central to our core mission.” The Press has been receiving a $400,000 annual subsidy. A phase out of operations will begin this July. “Ten employees will be affected,” the Columbia Daily […]
Finance
Analyst Accepts Penguin’s Place At Pearson, For Now
For a while now Bernstein Research has been among the leaders of analysts calling for Pearson to sell off Penguin. In their facile reasoning, they’ve assumed that the trade publisher would be easy to sell at a premium price even though they believe it’s a laggard next to Pearson’s other assets. In a new report, they have concluded that “Pearson’s marriage to Penguin may have to last longer, just as the benefits of the relationship increasingly look questionable.” Again without any real foundation, they have decided that the Department of Justice’s ebook pricing investigation means that a potential sale of […]
Corporate: Macmillan New Ventures Buys EBI; Gallimard Last and Only Bidder for Flammarion
The sale of French publisher Flammarion by RCS appears to be down to a single contender, Les Echos reported, after bidding partners Albin Michel and Chequers Capital dropped out when they refused to increase their offer. The lone publishing house still in contention to buy Flammarion is Gallimard, which reportedly is working to raise their original offer of approximately 200 million euros. The RCS board of directors, which waffled its way into the sale offer in the first place, has indicated it might cancel the sale if the offer is not improved sufficiently–which is about the only tool available to them […]
Houghton: The Dog Ate Our Business
Also included in yesterday’s voluntary bankruptcy filing from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt was the disclosure of some basic financial numbers–and problems. For 2011, the company had sales of approximately $1.295 billion and EBITDA of $238 million, which underscores why a debt load of over $3 billion was unsustainable (with interest payments exceeding cash generated). The only solution, as the filing points out, was “a restructuring to completely delever the debtor’s balance sheet.” In looking for causes/excuses, the company says that “the recession decreases in state spending as well as significant purchase deferrals in key states and territories resulted in material reductions […]
As Expected, HMH Files For Pre-Packaged Chapter 11 Bankruptcy
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in New York’s Southern District Court Monday morning, listing debt of more than $1 billion each in the initial court filing. As previously reported, HMH is going through a pre-packaged bankruptcy to eliminate more than $3 billion in debt left over from the initial $7 billion accrued when Riverdeep merged Houghton Mifflin and Harcourt together several years ago, and hopes to complete its financial restructuring by the end of June. Court documents filed by HMH’s counsel Paul, Weiss, Rifkind and Garrison lists assets of “between $10 million and $50 million,” as well […]
Burkle to Reallocate His Barnes & Noble Stock
Barnes & Noble’s stock was having a rough day in Thursday morning trading and then briefly plunged in the afternoon following an SEC filing by large shareholder Ron Burkle. What he reported to the SEC is that two of the entities he controls–Yucaipa American Alliance Fund II and Yucaipa American Alliance (Parallel) Fund II–are going to “distribute in-kind” their shares to the funds’ owners. (It’s difficult to tell from Burkle’s filing how his 19.74 percent block of Barnes & Noble stock is spread among multiple entities, each of which is credited with substantial interest in same pool of shares.) The market’s […]