Pearson won’t report its preliminary annual earnings until February 27 but Thursday the company provided a short trading update indicating that for the year as a whole, Pearson generated approximately £2 billion in digital revenues and approximately £600m in revenues in emerging markets. They also expect to exceed their full year earnings guidance by 10 percent (with the original forecast being 83p per share), attributing the good news to “rapid growth in digital services, our expanding position in developing economies and the continuing transformation of our business portfolio.” Penguin’s results are said to be “strong” during the holidays, with expectations […]
Finance
Corporate News: Bloomsbury Holds Steady; Bertelsmann Invests In Higher Ed
Bloomsbury released a non-specific “interim management update” for the final four months of the year on Monday that, true to the form, highlights everything good that happened and declares it a “strong” period. Others have hailed the declaration that “ebook sales grew significantly with the quarter ended December 31 being up 38 percent year on year,” but we thought that sounded weak next to most other year-over-year comps, particularly given that the UK market is supposed to have been growing at a faster rate than the US as it catches up. (Note that for the 6 months ending August 2011, […]
Like Thalia’s Germany, France’s Fnac Announces Restructuring As Sales Fall
Just after Germany’s biggest bookselling chain announced losses and an unspecified restructuring, French bookselling chain Fnac is in a similar position. The group says sales at their stores fell 5.4 percent in 2011 and they “expect annual current operating income to decrease by half,” citing “a severe decrease in popularity” of publications. They say “the worsening of the economic crisis over the last six months has led to a significant decrease in household spending in Europe, which is affecting Fnac’s markets in all of the countries in which it is present.” Fnac says they are working on an 80-million-euro cost […]
Thalia’s Parent May Sell, Spinoff–Or Just Sit Tight
Parent company of Germany’s largest–but ailing–book chain Thalia continues to be the focus of market gyration. First shares fell sharply on reduced earnings guidance, driven by Thalia’s difficulties competing with ebooks and online bookselling and unquantified “restructuring” costs at the bookseller. But then shares soared on news of a possible buyout. CEO Henning Kreke “told analysts at a meeting on Thursday that Douglas had been approached by investors several times in recent years and that the Kreke family, which has a 12.6 percent stake in Douglas, decided to initiate talks over a buyout because it sees the company’s shares as […]
Random House Canada Becomes Sole Owner of McClelland & Stewart
Random House Canada has acquired the University of Toronto’s 75 percent share in McClelland & Stewart, making RHC the sole owner of the storied Canadian house. Apparently the University has handed over their interest, telling us in a statement that “the University is not receiving any financial compensation.” They write that “publishing is not a core business of the University of Toronto,” and that “the Canadian government has authorized the sale of McClelland & Stewart to Random House. As a result, UofT is able to divest itself of its shares in the company. The University has used its ownership position […]
Daniel Tisch Reports 5.1% Holding in Barnes & Noble
The Tisch family is the latest group of wealth investors to take in interest in Barnes & Noble. Daniel Tisch filed the required SEC form to disclose that he now holds a 5.1 percent stake in the bookseller (or nearly 3.1 million shares). A little fewer than half the shares are held by his personal investment company, TowerView, while the rest of the stake is controlled by Four Partners, another investment company owned by all four Tisch brothers and run by Thomas Tisch, though Daniel Tisch has “sole voting power and sole investment power” over the entire holding. Tisch has […]