Cengage had sales of $1.88 billion in their most recent fiscal year, ending in June, but the textbook company went from income of $47 million in the previous year to a loss of $37 million. Thirty-one percent of recents come from digital products and print-and-digital bundles. Bought by Apax Partners in the overvalued days of cheap and abundant credit in 2007 for $7.75 billion, the company still carries gross debt of $5.7 billion, which costs $480 million a year in interest. CEO Ron Dunn “says it will need to refinance within 18 months,” but also indicates to the FT there […]
Finance
Court Finally Approves BN’s Bid For Borders IP
Federal bankruptcy court Judge Martin Glenn finally approved Barnes & Noble’s $13.9 million winning bid for the bulk of Borders’ intellectual property on Monday afternoon after various privacy concerns voiced last week by an independent ombudsman were worked out by all parties. Reuters reported that at the hearing, Borders lawyer Andrew Glenn said the deal will give customers 15 days to opt out of the transfer by responding to an email that will be sent out once the deal closes, though that date has not been decided upon yet. Further information on how the more than 48 million Borders customers […]
BN’s Privacy Issues Are Holding Up the Other Borders IP Sales
A lengthy hearing in federal bankruptcy court Thursday did little to resolve a dispute over recommendations from a consumer privacy ombudsman that leaves Barnes & Noble’s $13.9 million bid for Borders’ intellectual property still in doubt. The asset purchase agreement called for a “drop-dead” deadline of September 30, but Judge Glenn flat-out said there was “no way” any deal could be reached in time at the current rate. For now, the parties will reconvene Monday, September 26 at 4 PM. As Judge Glenn heard statements from lawyers for Borders, the creditors committee, Barnes & Noble, as well as the privacy […]
Barnes & Noble Says Privacy Recommendations “Would Destroy the Value” of Borders IP Purchase
A battle is brewing in advance of the Thursday afternoon court hearing on Barnes & Noble’s $13.9 million bid to acquire most of Borders’ intellectual property, including their extensive customer databases. This dispute focuses on recommendations of consumer privacy ombudsman Michael St. Patrick Baxter, at Covington & Burling. Not only does BN say “implementing all of the recommendations contained in the report would destroy the value of the transaction from Barnes & Noble’s perspective,” but they accuse Borders of withholding those recommendations (as well as correspondence from the FTC and state Attorneys General) in advance of the auction. They write […]
Slight Wait on Borders IP Sales
The hearing to approve the auctions of Borders’ intellectual property assets set for today has been postponed to Thursday afternoon at 2:00. In the meantime, Barnes & Noble continues to decline to comment on what they purchased, though court filings so far imply the bookseller is acquiring almost everything that was up for sale (including domestic rights to the Borders names and web URLs, along with the customers lists to the extent that the privacy policy allows their sale and reuse) except for licenses to various Borders’ trademarks in other territories. Under the approved auction rules, Borders is supposed to […]
People, Etc.:
At this morning’s BISG annual meeting, the organization confirmed that vice chair Ken Michaels is now serving as co-chair of the organization’s board, alongside Dominique Raccah, who will step down from her position in a year. (Raccah took over as sole chair of the board last November when co-chair Andrew Weber left Random House.) Little, Brown, John Parsley has been promoted to executive editor. He joined the company in the fall of 2007. David Moldawer has joined Amazon Publishing as senior editor for the New York-based trade group, run by Larry Kirshbaum. Previously he was a senior editor at McGraw-Hill. At […]