A shareholder lawsuit against Barnes & Noble chairman Len Riggio and two former company directors, Lawrence Zilavy and Michael Del Giudice, over the public company’s 2009 buyout of BN College will move forward to a trial tentatively set to begin June 18. Delaware Chancery Court Judge Leo Strine dismissed three independent directors from the suit, along with vice chairman Steve Riggio (who had recused himself from voting on the acquisition). As Bloomberg summarizes, “the investors argue that the board allowed Riggio to dictate terms and timing of the 2009 buyout of Barnes & Noble College Booksellers Inc. and didn’t force […]
Finance
HMH Downgraded Again With Another Restructuring “Likely”
With declining textbooks revenues, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s $3.1 billion in debt was downgraded last week to a lowly Caa 3 rating by Moody’s, which said the publisher’s finances are “unsustainable without a significant rebound in earnings” and judged “a debt restructuring in the near term is increasingly likely.” The ratings service says privately-held HMH’s sales fell 16 percent last year, and are targeted to fall 5 percent this year. They had already downgraded HMH’s debt in January as well. The near-term problem is that “Houghton’s management indicated in the fourth quarter earnings call that the company…doesn’t have funding for all the […]
Investor Tries New Path For Barnes & Noble Break-Up; Flammarion Bidding Moves Forward
Investor Michael Glickstein of G Asset Management, 30, who has been writing letters to the Barnes & Noble board for almost a year asking for a break-up of the company, is trying a new approach. In his newest letter, Bloomberg reported Friday, Glickstein at least theoretically offered to “buy” half of Barnes & Noble College in a spinoff of that division. It’s not clear that G Asset, which appears to be a one-man shop, has available the assets or borrowing power to make such an offer. (G Asset has declared ownership of a modest number of shares of BN stock, […]
Dorchester’s Office Closed, Assets To Be Auctioned After Owner Forecloses
Dorchester Publishing, plagued by financial troubles for years and having recently divested itself of its remaining editorial staff, appears to be marching towards an ignoble end after more than 40 years in business. In a twist worthy of Dorchester’s tortured road to collapse, the publisher’s owner is the one foreclosing, on a personal basis, against the company itself, and will collect the proceeds from the sale of at least some of its property–raising questions about whether any assets will remain to pay creditors. On February 28, John Backe filed a notice of foreclosure after failing to collect on an outstanding […]
Wiley Looks to Sell Professional/Trade Assets That Drive $85 Million A Year
Wiley announced Wednesday that it has retained Allen & Company to “explore the sale of a number of consumer print and digital publishing assets in its professional/trade business that no longer align with the company’s long-term strategies.” That decision comes after a “strategic review of the company’s professional/trade business portfolio.” They are looking to sell a substantial portion of their professional/trade portfolio, comprising “approximately $85 million of revenue” in the most recent fiscal year. (That’s about 20 percent of the year’s trade/professional revenue $437 million for the most recent full fiscal year.) Those assets provided a “direct contribution to profit, before shared-service […]
Russell & Volkening Is Acquired By Lippincott Massie McQuilkin
Literary agency Russell & Volkening, founded in 1940 by Diarmuid Russell and Henry Volkening and acquired in 1972 by Timothy Seldes, has found a new home after a lengthy search that began in early 2011. Lippincott Massie McQuilkin has acquired the agency and will operate it “intact” and intends to maintain the agency’s name as well. Seldes will retire and William Critzman, who has been acting president since May 2011, will step down once the acquisition is complete. Last May, three of the younger members of R&V left to form their own agency, Hannigan Salky Getzler Agency, taking their clients with […]