David Patterson has left Holt, where he was an editor, and starts today at Foundry Literary + Media as an agent. Irish bookselling chain Hughes & Hughes declared bankruptcy. Ulster Bank appointed David Carson of Deloitte as receiver. The company blamed a variety of factors, from reduced air traffic which suppressed business at its successful airport bookstores to higher rents and the internet.Irish Times Gordon Wood won the American History Book Prize for Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815, which includes the title of American Historian Laureate. Mexican author and guerrilla movement scholar Carlos Montemayor, 62, […]
Finance
Burkle Continues Agitating Against Barnes & Noble Board
It was fairly obvious that the Barnes & Noble board of directors would decline investor Ron Burkle’s request that they grant him an exception from the poison pill provision that they adopted specifically to block Burkle and his friends from threatening the Riggios’ de facto control over the company. But in a new letter to the board, Burkle expresses surprise that the company’s independent directors did not contact him before dismissing his concerns, and he asks for a meeting: “I would have hoped that the non-management members of the Board would have contacted me before unilaterally rejecting my request that […]
Alibris Buys Monsoon
Online used-book marketplace Alibris’s parent company is acquiring Oregon-based marketplace selling solutions company Monsoon for a combination of cash and stock. (Monsoon helps sellers list their good across multiple marketplaces.) Alibris owner Oak Hill Capital provided funding along with additional bank financing. The two companies will continue to operate separately. Monsoon ceo Kanth Gopalpur will continue to run the company. He says in the announcement, “This transaction will provide the combined Monsoon-Alibris customer base with even more opportunities to expand their businesses and increase sales. We will be able to take advantage of additional resources, technology, and capital in order […]
Houghton Parent Completes Restructuring, Paulson Completes Essential Takeover
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s parent company has executed their financial restructuring pretty much exactly as described last month. With their $800 million annual debt service reduced to more like $250 million a year, the company should now be able to operate more or less normally. About $7 billion in debt has been converted into a mere $3 billion of debt, with the senior secured lenders–led by John Paulson’s hedge fund, which bought that debt on the cheap to take control of the company–holding most of the equity for now, until he’s ready to sell it again. Earlier investors, including financial whiz […]
BN to Burkle: No
In the least surprising news of the month, the Barnes & Noble board hasunanimously agreed with itself and told investor Ron Burkle they willnot abandon the poison pill that was created specifically to blockBurkle from accumulating too much of the company’s stock. They also write: “The Board also would like to correct a misstatementcontained in your letter regarding the total stock holdings of theRiggio family and other Company insiders. Please be advised that,excluding options that are not votable, Barnes & Noble’s directors,management and other executive officers currently hold approximately 31%of the Company’s outstanding stock.” The real question is whether Burkle […]
Make eBooks Cheap, Or Grandpa Will Steal Them
It’s tempting to dismiss today’s NYT piece on ebook readers preference to pay less money for titles for the unsubstantial work that it is. But since it runs in the Times, some people will automatically take it seriously, despite the anecdotal reporting and absence of any data. (Not that none exists–but there’s no mention here of recently-presented findings on price sensitivity from the BISG and Verso surveys, or Kobo’s presentation that they sell almost as many ebooks at prices greater than $9.99 than they do at $9.99 itself, or the informal accounts of agents who have seen pricing data presented […]