It’s never a surprise when a Delaware Chancery Court sides with corporate management, since business is the business of Delaware, so as expected Vice Chancellor Leo Strine rejected the case brought by Ron Burkle’s Yucaipa. Strine concluded that the poison pill “rights plan was a proportional response to the threat the company faced and was reasonably designed to prevent “a creeping acquisition without the benefit of receiving a control premium.” The chancellor also identified weaknesses and inconsistencies in the arguments made by Burkle. Particularly on the point that the poison pill made it difficult for Burkle to wager a proxy […]
Finance
Burkle Wins Again As Deal to Avoid Proxy Fight Looms
It’s hard to entertain sale offers for a company while investors await a ruling on corporate governance and worry whether a well-heeled activist shareholder is mounting a proxy fight to remove the founder and chairman from the board. With the threat of an imminent proxy fight filing looming, the Barnes & Noble board is reportedly close to finalizing a peace deal with Ron Burkle’s Yucaipa that would settle his lawsuit instead of leaving it to the judge in Delaware. The expected deal as reported by the WSJ (and then the NYT and others) would add three new directors to the […]
More Borders Cuts, This Time at Headquarters
After recently announced cuts of another 100 jobs at their Tennessee distribution center, Borders Group has cut staff again, returning to the rolls at their Ann Arbor headquarters. Spokesperson Mary Davis confirmed their were “job eliminations” to the Ann Arbor newspaper but declined to indicate a number. There have been approximately 650 people working out of the Ann Arbor offices, after 88 corporate workers were laid off in January. Davis said: “As we aggressively work to restore the financial health of the company, we have reorganized core areas of our business to ensure that we have the necessary resources in […]
More Concerns about Australia/New Zealand Bookselling Giant; McNally Jackson Still Waiting for Espresso to Brew
We noted in late July that RedGroup–the dominant bookseller in Australia and New Zealand under the Whitcoulls, Angus & Robertson and Borders ANZ operations–was talking to its lenders about getting a waiver from an expected breach of their borrowing covenants. (Even so, they were reportedly projecting ebitda of approximately $25 million AU for their fiscal year ending in late August.) A new story in Crikey cites industry sources whom claim the group “has been forced to jack up prices, increase returns and extend trading terms with its suppliers.” One anonymous publisher says the chains have asked for 120 days to […]
Dorchester: Digital, or Desperate?
Dorchester Publishing has switched to subsistence mode, though they have tried to sprinkle some digital fairy dust over the move. The mass market publisher has struggled for some time, now. At the beginning of the year they sold both frontlist and backlist titles from many of their top authors to Avon–an imprint of their distributor, HarperCollins. Earlier this summer, the Romance Writers of America reportedly cancelled Dorchester’s participation in their annual conference because the company was “past due in fulfilling contractual obligations to some of their authors.” And company president John Prebich confirmed to the media last Friday that their […]
Indiana Publisher Investigated for Not Printing Customers’ Books
The Indiana Attorney General’s office is investigating multiple complaints from authors who worked with New Century Publishing and say they paid for books that they never received. So for negotiations with owner David William Caswell have “failed to lead to restitution to the authors.” The AG’s office has successfully sued Caswell twice in the past, though the Indianapolis Star says he has paid almost none of the money owed under two court-approved settlements.Indy Star