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 […]
Finance
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 […]
Anderson Family Offers to Buy Out Books-a-Million Shares and Go Private
With Barnes & Noble all but private, the nation’s second largest bookselling chain Books-A-Million may go completely private, as the controlling stakeholders at the Anderson family have offered to acquire all outstanding shares. It is a modest offer–at $3.05 per share in cash, it values the entire company at $48.8 million, and is a 20 percent premium over the closing price last Friday. But shares traded as high as 3.50 a share in early April, and within the past year have been as high as about $4.75 a share, which led ZPR Investment Management president Mark Zavanelli to tell the WSJ […]
Corporate: Scholastic Expect More Earnings Thanks to Hunger Games Sales; Secound Round Bids for Flammarion
Scholastic significantly increased its earnings guidance for fiscal 2012, which ends on May 31, to exceed $3.40 a share, “based on stronger than anticipated sales of The Hunger Games trilogy following the March 23 movie release.” Previously, the company projected annual earnings of between $2.60 to $2.90 per diluted share, while the company’s prior guidance for revenue and free cash flow remains unchanged. The sale process for French publisher Flammarion by its Italian owner RCS Media continues, with a number of reports indicating that five publishers have submitted second-round bids starting at 300 million euros. France’s Actes Sud and Albin […]
BN Puts Nook and College Business Into New Subsidiary, With Microsoft Investing $300 Million
The future of both Barnes & Noble and the digital reading business took new shape Monday morning as the bookseller announced the creation of a new subsidiary, into which they have transferred all of the Nook and BN College units (comprising “their digital device, digital content and college bookstore businesses.”) Microsoft is investing $300 million in that subsidiary–called simply NewCo for now (a standard corporate placeholder before the real name is finalized)–in exchange for preferred shares representing a 17.6 percent stake. That gives the newly-formed unit an approximate valuation of $1.7 billion (with BN’s share valued at $1.4 billion) — far more than […]