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 […]
Finance
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 […]
Next Barnes & Noble Leak Spins Towards Liberty Deal Getting Done
Yesterday’s unsourced New York Post story claiming potential trouble in takeover talks between Liberty Media and Barnes & Noble took the bookseller’s stock down over 5 percent at the opening bell. But another wave of news took the stock up in the early afternoon Wednesday and it settled up slightly for the day. (The stock price remained steady in early morning trading.) The WSJ found their own “people familiar with the matter” who assured them that Liberty has completed its due diligence and is “finalizing its offer for the company.” These people say that completion of negotiations could lead to […]
Briefs: Liberty Deal For BN Reportedly “Looks Shaky”; More on McGraw-Hill; Inkling Raises Another $17M; and More
Two-and-a-half months after Liberty Media’s initial offer to purchase Barnes & Noble for $17 a share (or just over $1 billion), the NY Post claims the deal now “looks shaky.” Or it may simply be a delay in the initial timetable, as “a deal failed to materialize last week, which was a preliminary target for a final deal since talks began in May, according to sources.” Drawing on a single, unnamed source, the paper says “at least one private-equity giant this week hired a consulting firm to take a fresh look at B&N’s books in case their deal falls apart.” […]