Late last week 16 more states, as well as the District of Columbia, joined the amended ebook pricing complaint against Apple and the ‘Agency Five’ publishers, bringing the number of states involved in the lawsuit to 32. Texas and Connecticut initially filed the complaint at the same time as the DOJ; among the new plaintiffs are Virginia, Indiana, New York, and Wisconsin. Page One Bookstore in Albuquerque, NM, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February 2011, said it expects final approval of a reorganization plan to move forward as a going concern “shortly,” according to the Albuquerque Journal. Owner […]
Finance
Houghton Plans Pre-Packaged Bankruptcy and Restructuring to Eliminate Over $3 Billion In Debt
After months of reports that Houghton Mifflin Harcourt was preparing a second major restructuring of its debt load (and multiple warnings from rating services), the company announced Friday morning they have a “high level of support” from their lenders and bondholders for a pre-packaged bankruptcy and financial restructuring. The proposal would eliminate their $3.1 billion debt load, and save the company $250 million a year in debt service. Under the plan, current bondholders and lending banks would trade their loans for 100 percent of the equity in the reorganized company. As is generally the case in such restructuring’s, existing equity […]
Books-A-Million Announces Formation of Special Board Committee for Buyout As Shareholder Sues
Books-A-Million formally announced the creation of a special committee of independent directors that will evaluate and make a recommendation regarding the Anderson family’s bid to take the company private. The committee, comprising Albert C. Johnson and J. Barry Mason, has retained King & Spalding as its legal counsel and is in the process of retaining financial advisors. In the same statement, BAMM’s board of directors again cautioned shareholders and other interested parties that the board “has only recently received the proposal and no decisions have been made…. There can be no assurance that any definitive offer will be made or […]
Significant BAMM Investor Gowda Says Buyout Undervalues Bookseller
Earlier this week when the Anderson family, which owns a majority stake in Books-A-Million, announced its intention to buy out all other shareholders and take the company private at $3.05 a share, the move was seen by analysts and investors as a lowball or “take-under” effort. At the time, minority investor Harsha Gowda of Blueshore Capital Management, with a 6.38 percent stake in BAMM, told us he would “have to postpone a discussion about this situation until after the proposed transaction occurs.” It seems he didn’t have to wait very long, based on a letter Gowda sent to Books-A-Million’s board […]
Jana Took Some Barnes & Noble Profit, But Remains Big Holder
Investors who hold more than 5 percent of a company’s stock traditionally need to declare any sales to the SEC within 48 hours, so today should be when we learn whom among the small set of concentrated Barnes & Noble investors took the money on Monday after the announcement of the Microsoft deal. So far only Jana Partners has filed, indicating that the firm sold a million of their shares near the top, at $24.42 a share. But they are still holding almost 10 percent, or approximately 5.96 million shares. Given the unprecedented trading volume on Monday of nearly 30 million […]
Is the Barnes & Noble Spinoff Really A Leave Behind?
With yesterday’s headlines about Microsoft’s investment in a newly-created subsidiary of Barnes & Noble absorbed, there are a lot of details–and implications–to dive into. While we underscored in yesterday’s account that Microsoft was both paying out revenue share advances of $60 million a year and contributing $25 million a year towards acquiring content around the world in addition to their $300 million equity investment, we didn’t total it up for you: the revenue share payments are promised for three years, and the content payments are pledged for five years, totaling $305 million in committments. (At the same time, it appears […]