We’ve always wondered why any (and every) bookstore–chain or indie–doesn’t offer to ship you for free any book that is not in stock. After all, in an internet-everywhere age, customers know they can go to any browser and accomplish the same thing. But Borders appears to be the first to figure this out, announcing today a “promise to customers that if they do not find an item in stock in a Borders store, and that item is among the more than one million titles available on Borders.com, Borders will find it and pay the shipping costs to the customer’s home.” […]
Finance
One Analyst Warms to Barnes & Noble
After dour reports last week from stock analysts at Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse, Barnes & Noble’s stock gets a better assessment today from Alan Rifkin at Bank of America/Merrill Lynch. They have upgraded their assessment of shares to neutral from underperform, with a price target of $19 a share. They write, “while we remain cautious of book industry fundamentals overall, we favorably view recent developments BKS has made to enhance its competitive position.” In their report, they see nook as helping to compete with Kindle; believe that the BN College acquisition can provide sales growth (since so many schools […]
After Saying He Wouldn't Sell Any More of CBS, Redstone Files to Do Just That
Sumner Redstone’s National Amusements filed offerings with the SEC to sell approximately $345 million worth of shares in CBS and $600 million of shares in Viacom in order to pay off the company’s debt. Redstone and the company first came under pressure when the stock market collapsed this time a year ago. At the time, National Amusement had to dump $400 million in shares in both companies in a falling market to meet margin calls and comply with their credit agreements. In the ensuing negotiations, Redstone pledged over and over again that he would not sell any more stock in […]
Grove Atlantic Reduces Stake In Atlantic Books, As Allen and Unwin Buys In
Grove Atlantic is selling a portion of its majority stake in the UK’s Atlantic Books, remaining as “a significant minority shareholder,” while Australia’s Allen and Unwin is becoming a “significant” shareholder itself. The company is said to have obtained “substantial” (we don’t know if that’s more or less than significant) new financing as well, in part to help drive the expansion of the Corvus line–all logical developments following Anthony Cheetham’s joining the company earlier this year. Morgan Entrekin will remain on the Atlantic Books board, now joined by Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Ravi Mirchandandi.Bookseller
Two BAMM Disclosures
Books-A-Million announced that Anderson BAMM Holdings intends to sell up to 400,000 shares of stock in the bookseller–about 25 percent of its current holdings–“to assist its members’ in their estate planning needs.” The entity is the company’s fourth-largest shareholder, after three members of the Anderson family. BAMM stock has significantly outperformed its bookselling peers over the last year. Separately, in a filing with the SEC that revises the presentation of some basic data in answer to a variety of questions posed by the regulatory agency, Books-a-Million has broken out their e-commerce sales for the past three years. Sales of $25.17 […]
BN Completes BN College Acquisition
Barnes & Noble announced after the close of the market that they completed their acquisition of privately-held Barnes & Noble College Booksellers from Len Riggio. The purchase price was reduced from $596 million to $514 million, “reflect $82 million in cash bonuses paid by College to 192 members of its management team and employees” (not including Riggio.) The original purchase price acknowledged that BN College had about $136 million in cash on hand, making the effective price $460 million, which presumably has not changed materially. The company did say that the refinancing of their lightly-used $1 billion revolving credit facility […]