Fast-growing Sourcebooks is launching a new education division that will incorporate and extend existing publications and programs for college students and the college-bound with a number of new initiatives. Initial staffing for the division will include six new positions in sales, marketing and information systems, continuing to draw on existing staff in editorial and publicity. The first new hires are: Technical architect Deb Kimminau, responsible for leading the design and development of new digital initiatives, which include MyMaxScore; programmer analyst Kavita Khanna, responsible for updating and implementing new technical requirements for the MyMaxScore adaptive learning software; and education sales manager […]
Finance
Pearson to Relocate Near Penguin In NY
Pearson intends to relocate Education division employees from White Plains, NY and Upper Saddle River, NJ to Manhattan in 2014, right near Penguin’s NYC offices. The company says it expects to add 600 new media and technology jobs as well. The mayor’s office says in a press release Pearson will reap “at least $13.5 million in city-granted energy-cost savings and state tax credits over 10 years” for the 270,000 square feet of space they are taking at 330 Hudson Street, with the possibility of other incentives as well. Pearson is said to be investing $21 million in renovating the space. […]
Borders Auctions IP Off to Multiple Bidders, Including Barnes & Noble and Berjaya Books
Borders held an auction for its intellectual property Wednesday and Hilco Streambank, which conducted the proceedings and fielded offers from ten bidders, announced they had sold various assets for nearly $15.8 million. Hilco Streambank was vague on exactly who bought what asset, initially naming only Barnes & Noble and Berjaya Books among the “multiple bidders” who each acquired pieces of Borders’ IP, including a global portfolio of trademarks, the Borders, Waldenbooks and Brentano’s trade names, various domain names, and the Borders.com website. Barnes & Noble paid approximately $13.9 million, but no one has specified yet what they bought.Berjaya Books owns […]
Borders: Chief Account Officer Terminated, Next Jump Countersues
VP and chief accounting officer Glen Tomaszewski was terminated from his position on September 2, according to an SEC filing last week. The legal battle between Borders and marketing firm Next Jump is not over yet, despite last week’s agreement that Next Jump would take down a website that redirected Borders Rewards customers to its own rewards site, OO.com. Next Jump countered with a suit of its own, Reuters reports, saying Borders allowed Next Jump to transfer customer accounts to OO.com, but then accused the marketing firm of stealing the accounts as a pretext for recovering damages, in essence “duping” […]
McGraw-Hill Will Spin Education Business Off As Separate Company
The activist investors have won, as McGraw-Hill’s board unanimously approved a plan to split the conglomerate into two companies, McGraw-Hill Markets and McGraw-Hill Education. What that really means is the slower-growing education business will be isolated from the more profitable financial and market-focused business. The actual division will not take place until the end of 2012, when MH Education will get a “tax-free spinoff” to shareholders. The independent McGraw-Hill Education will comprise their current education division, including the K-12, higher education and professional education business lines. A ceo will be hired for this new business, with current education president Robert […]
People, Etc.
Ami Greko from Kobo, Liz Scheier from Barnes & Noble, and Christina Biamonte Faubert from Sony eBooks, will join the advisory board of the Publishing Innovation Awards–the expanded program of honors presented at Digital Book World. This year the initiative is also adding the QED Seal, “a reader-focused standard for ebook quality.” Kobo, BN and Sony have all joined the program as “supporting partners” as well. Further to yesterday’s news of Richard Nash‘s new job at start-up Small Demons, he notes on blog that his RedLemona.de venture is becoming “a fully volunteer-operated enterprise.” He tells us it will “continue as […]