RR Donnelley announced today that it has acquired digital content distribution and e-service provider LibreDigital for an undisclosed sum. President and ceo Thomas Quinlan said in a statement that buying LibreDigital will “extend RR Donnelley’s reach across the breadth of the supply chain.” This is the second company Donnelley has purchased this week, having also bought Sequence Personal, a provider of proprietary software that enables readers to select relevant content to be digitally produced as specialized publications. Earlier this summer Donnelley also acquired online writer services company Helium and Journalism Online. “With this acquisition we uniquely position RR Donnelley to […]
Finance
Quarto Buys Frances Lincoln For £4.5m, Reports Sales and Profit Increase So Far This Year
Quarto announced Tuesday that it had acquired Frances Lincoln Ltd for £4.5m. Quarto chairman Laurence Orbach said in a statement that Frances Lincoln’s non-fiction and illustrated children’s book list “complements Quarto’s existing UK publishing business, several imprints trading under the Aurum name, and more than doubles the scale of our presence in the UK. The acquisition is in keeping with our strategy to further expand our already broad offering of niche content.” For the fiscal year ending March 31, Frances Lincoln reported an audited profit before tax of £619,000, net assets of £3.8 million and gross assets of £5.9 million. […]
Hachette UK Changes Pension Contribution Plan As of September 30
With a shortfall of about £36m to overcome, Hachette UK will stop making contributions to Orion and Hodder pension funds as of September 30. Ceo Tim Hely Hutchinson gave two months notice to affected staffers in May that they will be switched over to Hachette’s “defined contribution pension scheme”, but 36 Orion employees are in talks as to what that entails – and whether Hachette’s offer fulfills the terms of the original contract. (Only company employees who have been with Hachette since 2003 are affected, since the company dropped the option for new staffers that year.) A strangely-worded piece in […]
Briefs: Pearson Gets Go-Ahead To Buy REDGroup Online Business; Sharing Google Books in Google+; and More
Some of the news that’s accumulated on a Friday in August: The Australian Competition Commission announced it “would not oppose” Pearson’s acquisition of the bankrupt REDGroup Retail’s online business, including the websites for Borders Australia and Angus & Robertson. saying it “will provide a summary of the reasons for its decision in due course.” Administrators Ferrier Hodgson also said that creditors must lodge any last claims against REDGroup by September 1, with final dividends due to be paid out in October. In addition, any customers still holding Angus & Robertson and Borders gift cards who file claims with administrators will […]
Borders Gets Court Approval On Auctions for Intellectual Property and Real Estate Leases
Borders received approval from federal bankruptcy court Wednesday to auction its name (as well as the brand names of once-operational subsidiaries Waldenbooks and Brentano’s), trademarks, website, and email lists on September 14, Reuters reported. Borders has enlisted Streambank to manage the sale of Borders’ intellectual property assets, with the firm’s principal David Peress noting in a statement that in addition to its marks and e-commerce assets, “Borders is the holder of a contiguous block of IPv4 addresses which it seeks to transfer to a qualified buyer.” A stalking horse bidder for the IP assets will be named in advance of […]
Borders CEO Edwards and CFO Henry ‘Terminated’ As Liquidation Continues
Borders’ 399 stores won’t finish the liquidation process until September, but ceo and president Mike Edwards and cfo Scott Henry won’t be around to see the chain through till the end. The two executives’ employment with the company was “terminated” on July 29, according to a Thursday filing with the SEC. Current svp restructuring Holly Felder Etlin, also a managing director of AlixPartners, has been promoted to president, and chief accounting officer and controller Glen Tomaszewski was appointed treasurer. In the same filing, Borders reported they have also paid off in full their obligations to DIP lenders under the amended […]