Education Media and Publishing Group ceo Barry O’Callaghan continues to provide an astonishing mix of remarks and revisionist history to the Irish media. It “bemuses” him that he’s “being positioned as the bad guy” in the evaporation of billions of dollars of equity. It’s not his fault, “It’s just bad luck for me and my fellow shareholders. It’s nothing different from the people who bought houses [in the boom].” Plus, “people are perfectly entitled to take a swing at me because I’ve lost them money and I’m disappointed, too. But don’t blame me for what I don’t control. This downturn […]
Finance
At EMPG, Master Trader Paulson Prepares to Take Control, with Plan to Recapitalize Houghton After Existing Investors Are Gone
As more details come to light on the pending restructuring of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt parent Education Media and Publishing Group (EMPG), the storyline moves from Barry O’Callaghan’s financial folly to hedge fund operator John Paulson’s perverse market triumph. (Paulson is the guy who made billions by betting the right way on the collapse of the sub-prime mortgage market, a tale told in Gregory Zuckerman’s THE GREATEST TRADE EVER and also examined in this week’s Malcolm Gladwell piece on entrepreneurs and risk-taking in the New Yorker.) Here is the picture that has emerged since yesterday’s Lunch report. EMPG confirmed that they […]
EMPG Confirms Negotiations, Says Lender/Owners to Provide New Working Capital
Further to this morning’s story on a restructuring of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt parent company EMPG which is considered likely to wipe out existing equity holders, the company issued this statement: “We are in advanced discussions regarding a comprehensive, consensual balance sheet restructuring. A substantial majority of the company’s most significant lenders have already agreed to the framework for this restructuring plan, which will put the company on a stronger financial footing for the future. “Moreover, certain of our lenders have committed to make substantial new investments in the company in connection with this restructuring. Significantly, the plan will enhance liquidity […]
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Financial House of Cards Reported Ready to Fall
Two debt restructurings last year still left Houghton Mifflin Harcourt parent company Education and Media Publishing Group (EMPG) straining to sustain their debt obligations and covenants, and reports from Ireland indicate yet another restructuring is in the works that would wipe out equity-holders entirely and turn the company over to its secured lenders. Investors losing out would include the financial genius behind the $9 billion worth of acquisitions, Barry O’Callaghan, whose interest was reduced to about 20 percent of the company last August. (He also made himself ceo of HMH last year when Tony Lucki wisely retired.) But it also […]
Founder Buys Back Stone Bridge; Quirk Announces 'Android Karenina'; Jacky Sach to Retire, and More
Founder of Stone Bridge Press Peter Goodman has reacquired 100 percent of the company’s shares from its Japanese owner, IBC Publishing of Tokyo. Goodman sold Stone Bridge to Japanese book distributor Yohan in 2005 and passed to its one-time subsidiary IBC in 2007 right before Yohan declared bankruptcy. Goodman, who has been an executive at Stone Bridge since its founding in 1989, will continue to lead the company as publisher and editor-in-chief from their current offices near North Berkeley, CA. He notes, “The Japanese owners at IBC have always been generous in spirit, and they did the best they could […]
Aletheia Kept Building BN Stake
Aletheia Research and Management continued their heaving buying of Barnes & Noble stock in the final week of 2009, filing with the SEC yesterday to disclose that their share in the bookseller had risen to 13.12 percent of all shares outstanding. The company’s purchases throughout December were all made at prices in excess of Barnes & Noble’s current price, now trading below $18 a share.SEC filing