As some of us expected, the UK’s Office of Fair Trading has cleared the way for Amazon’s proposed acquisition of The Book Depository. The OFT said that according to the evidence it received, The Book Depository only accounted for “between two to four per cent of online retailing of hard-copy books,” and as such didn’t qualify as a “significant source of competitive rivalry to Amazon.” Further, the OFT added, “the evidence indicated that competition within Amazon Marketplace would continue to be strong post-merger, for a wide range of book titles.” As to whether the merger would reduce competition in “deep-range” […]
Finance
Harper Acquires Newmarket Press List
HarperCollins has acquired “the majority of titles” published by Esther Margolis’s Newmarket Press. The publisher’s list comprises over 200 books on film (particularly screenplays and “making of” books that tie in to award-winning movies), theater, and performing arts, as well as over 100 titles on parenting, psychology, health, biography, history, and business as well as some fiction. The only titles not included in the agreement are inactive ones that will revert back to the rightsholders. At one point, HarperCollins had served as Newmarket’s distributor. Margolis, who started Newmarket in 1981, will join Harper’s It Books as an executive editor. She […]
Accounting Gift Provides Borders With One Month of Profit
Borders’ latest monthly operating report is testimony to the value of gift cards for any bookseller. In its final month of liquidation the company was able to book the value of all unredeemed gift cards–worth $156.2 million. Thanks to that gift of accounting, they recorded an operating profit for the first time…in a long time. Net income for the month was $66.1 million.
McGraw-Hill Misses Estimates, As K-12 Sales Are Hit
McGraw-Hill reported sales and earnings below expectations and pared back their full-year earnings forecast this morning. Sales at McGraw-Hill Education, which will be kicked out of the corporate nest next year to stand on its own, fell 11.1 percent, to $937 million. Adjusted operating profit fell by the same percentage, at $314.7 million. The decline came almost entirely from the School Education group in particular, where declining state textbook adoptions drove a 21.4 percent drop in sales to $420.4 million. Higher ed and professional sales were “essentially flat.”
Borders Creates Liquidating Trust For Remaining Assets As Privacy Objections Continue
Now that Borders has sold its intellectual property and liquidated all remaining stores, the bankrupt retailer said in a court filing Tuesday that it intends to distribute remaining assets that have not been abandoned or sold already through a liquidating trust. “Holders of equity interests shall neither receive nor retain any property under the plan,” the company said in court papers, which means any remaining shareholders, whoever they are (stock traded at 2 cents on the pink sheets most recently) will end up with nothing. Creditors have until December 9 to approve or reject the plan, with a confirmation hearing […]
Borders Website Will Redirect to BN by October 14
As part of a $13.9 million deal approved in federal bankruptcy court late last month, Borders’ website will shut down by October 14 and redirect to BN.com. Over the weekend Barnes & Noble ceo William Lynch wrote a letter to Borders customers outlining the switch — and how to opt out if need be — as well as some words about the end of what was once the second-largest bookstore chain in the country. “Our intent in buying the Borders customer list is simply to try and earn your business,” Lynch wrote in the letter, which went to more than […]