At yesterday’s presentation at Liberty Media’s annual meeting, Barnes & Noble’s William Lynch basically repeated the market predictions and assessments that he’s been making to anyone who would listen. It was an afternoon upgrade from Stifel Niclaus that sent the company’s stock soaring again in early afternoon trading yesterday. Analyst David Schick is coming to believe the company’s contention that it is turning into a technology company, and he set a price target of $25 a share (or 50 percent above current levels). As we suggested earlier, Rakuten’s valuation of Kobo implies that Barnes & Noble’s Nook business should be […]
Finance
Houghton to Close Current Trade Warehouse, and Fire More Execs
In another memo, reproduced at GalleyCat, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt ceo Linda Zecher tells staff that the company will close its Indianapolis West warehouse next spring, which services the trade and reference division. But those products won’t move far; they will be transferred to the company’s Indianapolis East warehouse. Zecher says it’s “part of the broader reduction in our workforce” that the FT said could comprise 10 percent of the company’s employees in all. On top the last week’s executive departures and division closings, Zecher writes that evp of Innovation and New Ventures Fiona O’Carroll is leaving and that team “is being […]
Borders Creditors Will Get Only 4 to 10 Cents On the Dollar
Borders’ current plan for Chapter 11 liquidation proceedings got a preliminary go-ahead in federal bankruptcy court Monday afternoon, when Judge Martin Glenn signed off on the company’s explanatory disclosure statement of their liquidation program. Borders currently expects to pay unsecured creditors somewhere between 4 and 10 percent of the $812 million to $850 million they are owed. Among other items gleaned from the documents: at some point “during the course of these cases,” Perseus resigned from the creditors committee (as did Sony Music). Borders continues to insist that they “intend to market [their] Kobo stock for sale.” They hold roughly 9.9 percent […]
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt to Restructure, Eliminate
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt ceo Linda K. Zecher announced in an internal memo ahead of a Monday investor call that she will restructure the company’s divisions as well as its executive ranks, “for better accountability with fewer senior leaders and more focus on our customers.” The company “we will no longer have a separate Education Group” and its current president, Mike Lavelle “has made the decision to leave HMH.” Company CFO (and one-time interim ceo) Michael Muldowney has resigned, with Eric Shuman taking the roll of interim cfo. They will also eliminate the Emerging Markets division and are restructuring their corporate […]
Liberty Media May Have Renewed Interest In Buying All of Barnes & Noble–Or Not
Barnes & Noble stock took another ride on Friday, at one point up another 10 percent a research note issued by Robert Routh at Phoenix Partners Group and carried on Bloomberg indicated Liberty Media “may be setting up a $1.5 billion credit facility to help fund” a full buyout of the bookseller. By mid-afternoon, however, BN spokesperson Mary Ellen Keating told Bloomberg that speculation was “not accurate,” adding “there’s no truth to it.” The stock gave back some of its gains but still closed up for the day on Friday. Today the market has opened down on concerns about Europe, […]
Barnes & Noble Bullish
The bookseller’s stock had another big day on Thursday, rising another 10.5 percent, passing $15 a share on very high volume. (That’s a two-day gain of 25 percent.) More curious still, there was unusual interest in shares of Books-a-Million as well, which had been in steady decline all year, shedding 65 percent of its value. BAMM shares traded at almost ten times their usual volume Thursday, rising 56 cents (a 24 percent boost). What’s up with that? The NY Post floats the idea that a private investor tour on Tuesday led by BN ceo William Lynch to show off the […]