Shares in Barnes & Noble touched all-time lows in Tuesday’s trading with the company’s market cap below $800 million after dropping almost 6 percent–and the decline has continued in early trading today. On Thursday the retailer will report quarterly earnings. Their guidance forecast a loss of 10 cents to 15 cents a share, but analysts […]
Finance
Redstone Has to Keep Reassuring Investors
Shares of CBS and Viacom have continued to fall recently as investors remained concerned that Sumner Redstone will be forced to sell some of his shares in order to refinance his $1.6 billion in debt. In a self-fulfilling spiral, the market worries that “further weakness would undermine Mr. Redstone’s talks with lenders and force him […]
Quercus Raising More Capital; Cheetham Steps Down
Shut out of traditional credit markets, Quercus is planning to raise 1.75 million pounds “in additional working capital and to strengthen its balance sheet,” nearly all of which will come from Pentland Group, which currently holds almost 20 percent of the company’s stock. Shareholders must approve a waiver from the takeover code, however, to allow […]
More UK Credit Insurance Worries
Credit insurance seems to be a more standard feature of doing business in the UK than it is in the US, and the FT reports on growing concerns that “the drying up of credit insurance could herald a wave of insolvencies in the troubled sector with the weakest stores and suppliers driven out of business.” […]
NY Considers Library Funding Cuts
One more story on the economy: New York’s budget division has recommended to the governor a $20 million cut in library support as part of proposed statewide reductions of expenses. That represents abou 20 percent of the currently allocated $99 million, a number already slimmed by $4 million from the 2007 allocation. The NY Library […]
How Badly Does Reed Need RBI Sale?
The longer the auction for the Reed Business Information goes on, the more the reported price drops, as the economy continues to slide. The latest rumor in the British media has the offering prices heading below 1 billion pounds, against an initial valuation of at least 1.25 billion pounds. The three bidders left are Bain […]