Random House is reportedly among the bidders for Reader’s Digest’s successful AllRecipes.com unit, as is Amazon, according to the NY Post, with the auction expected to end soon. Other bidders according to the report include Meredith, which had tried the acquire the property earlier, and Scripps Interactive, which owns the Food Network. NYP Also from Random House, the publisher notes that the week before Christmas, the Illinois Supreme Court dismissed a class action lawsuit against the publisher and former author Timothy Ferriss. The plaintiffs took issue with “bonus material” in THE 4-HOUR BODY that was originally accessible only with a […]
Finance
Investor Buys A Million Shares in Books-A-Million For 6.38 Percent Stake
Late last week, a filing with the SEC revealed that Roseland, NJ-based investor Harsha Gowda has acquired a little more than one million shares of Books-A-Million stock through his five-year-old investment firm Blueshore Capital Management. The acquisition gives Gowda a 6.38 percent stake in BAMM, accumulated over the past year with a “big increase during the recent sharp price drop,” he said in an interview with us Thursday morning. (The stock has been as high as $6.10 a share during the year, but it now trades at $2.30 a share.) Gowda’s fund focuses on buying stock in companies “that we […]
Unsecured Borders Creditors to Get Close to 10 Cents on Dollar As Liquidation Plan Approved
Federal bankruptcy court put its official stamp on the end of Borders, as the chain’s liquidation plan was approved by Judge Martin Glenn on Tuesday. Approximately 98 percent of creditors holding $211.5 million in debt voted to approve the plan. As previously reported, unsecured creditors owed between $812 million and $850 million will receive 4 to 10 cents on the dollar, but court papers indicate that recovery may be in the “higher end of the range,” with Borders lawyer Andrew Glenn stipulating in court that percentage may be even higher still, according to Bloomberg. In addition, Borders got the go-ahead to […]
Briefs: Indie Bookscan Holiday Sales Up 15.5 Percent; Bloomsbury’s New Literary Events Line; and More
The ABA announced that member in-store book sales over the Thanksgiving holiday long weekend, as tracked by Bookscan, increased 15.5 percent over the same week in 2010. Sales in store websites powered by ABA IndieCommerce also increased by 60 percent for the same weekend (plus Cyber Monday) as compared to last year. Ann Patchett’s STATE OF WONDER and Laura Hillenbrand’s UNBROKEN topped the Indie bestseller lists for hardcover fiction and non-fiction, respectively, in 2011. Indie Bestseller Lists page Also from the ABA, this year’s Winter Institute 7 in January will feature a new One Institute, One Read program. Tying in […]
Earnings Suffer At Wiley, On “Slowdown In Education”
Wiley’s net income of $50.7 million was down over 5 percent in their fiscal second quarter, falling more than sales, which declined less than 1 percent, at $447 million. The company lowered their sales guidance for the year, from mid-single-digit growth to low-single-digit-growth, while keeping their earnings forecast the same. It’s “the slowdown in education [that] continued to weigh on overall results,” ceo Stephen Smith said in the release. On the reduced earnings, the company cited “technology spending to support investments in digital products and infrastructure and facility costs related to consolidation of operations.” The professional/trade division “continues to perform […]
Splitting Off McGraw-Hill Education Will Eliminate About 550 Jobs
McGraw-Hill issued a statement updating investors on their “growth and value plan” after the close of the market on Wednesday. As announced in September, the company is preparing to separate McGraw-Hill Education and McGraw-Hill Financial into two separate companies by the end of the 2012. At MH Education, they expect to eliminate approximately 10 percent of their workforce, or approximately 550 people (while noting that the “executive ranks” will be reduced by 20 percent). Most of the layoffs will occur this month, coming “by the end of the fourth quarter”–which is aligned with calendar year–though “some actions [are] expected to […]