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 […]
Finance
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 […]
Barnes & Noble Stock Jumps As Another Big Player, Jana Partners, Discloses Stake
Activist hedge fund Jana Partners declared in an SEC filing on Friday that as of April 11 they owned nearly 7 million shares of stock in Barnes & Noble, or roughly 11.7 percent of shares outstanding. The firm also holds a short-term bet of options to buy 250,000 shares at $13 share, exercisable May 18. The bookseller’s stock rose steadily during Monday trading on the news, gaining more than $2 a share (or 18.25 percent), closing at $13.41 a share, on heavy volume of almost 5 million shares. In early Tuesday trading, the stock had given back about 65 cents […]
People, Etc.
Jennifer LaBracio has joined Little, Brown Books for Young Readers as associate director of marketing. She was most recently senior marketing manager at HMH Children’s. At HarperCollins UK, Erin Roy has joined as marketing communications director and Rufus Weston has been named customer insight director. Roy was most recently associate publisher at IPC Media and Weston was previously head of digital insight at the BBC global news division. Bookmasters will distribute Pearson Mexico‘s educational titles into the US and Canada. Digital book manufacturer IBT Global has acquired Castleton, NY-based printer Hamilton Printing Company. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, […]
What the Settlement Might Actually Cost Amazon and Barnes & Noble
[NB: We made a simple math error below the first time; the correct number of what this might cost Barnes & Noble is $55.5 million, not $30.5 million.] The stock market has sent mixed signals at best regarding key retailers following Wednesday’s announcement of the Justice Department’s lawsuit (and settlement). On Wednesday itself, Barnes & Noble’s stock dropped sharply until someone stepped in and bought a million shares, rallying to recover much of the drop. The stock declined further on Thursday, and Friday morning it is down modestly again, having shed about $90 million in market cap since earlier this […]