As first indicated by the Independent earlier this week, claims that Borders UK wasn’t for sale were blatantly false, and restructuring company Hilco’s private equity arm Valco Capital Partners is indeed buying the chain from Luke Johnson, the Bookseller reports. Current chief executive Philip Downer will continue to lead the company after a management buyout in tandem with finance director Mark Little. No figures are included in the report, though it was thought that the ailing group would be unloaded for a nominal sum. Downer told the Bookseller in a follow-up story that among their immediate plans are a working […]
Finance
McGraw-Hill Drops Another 340 Education Jobs In Reorg
The latest in a series of reorganizations of McGraw-Hill’s textbook division sounds so happy that you could almost overlook the news that they are eliminating another 340 jobs from the unit, taking a pre-tax charge of $14 million. Those cuts follow two previous purges since early 2008 that already eliminated 455 jobs within the education line, still making this latest reduction the single largest of the three rounds of layoffs. The company’s announcement, however, simply focuses on “creating achievement-focused preK-12 education group to help students develop 21st century skills.” That new focus somehow accounts for most of the layoffs: “the […]
Bookselling: Borders UK May Have A Buyer; Taiwan Companies Pair for eBook Launch; Bookseller Advises Authors On Signings
While still denying that Borders UK is even up for sale and insisting that Clearwater Corporate Finance has been hired only to help “seek out funding opportunities,” it looks like the ailing chain may have a buyer, or at least a company ready to take it off their hands. The Independent reports that the private equity arm of restructuring company Hilco, Valco Capital Partners, “plans to acquire the entire shareholding of Borders UK and take the company forward.” Reportedly they are “offering to take on the Borders superstores, Books Etc and Borders Express shops in a deal that could save […]
UK Rumor On Bloomsbury Sale
Bloomsbury’s stock “experienced unusually strong volume on Tuesday amid talk that Pearson was considering a bid,” the Times of London claims. Both companies are sitting on cash and have lower share prices: Bloomsbury’s market cap of 95 million pounds is less than one times Potter-free sales and the company had 50 million pounds in cash before announcing their most recent acquisition. Pearson, meanwhile, is said to have 580 million pounds in cash. Their shares showed a little life today after declining for a few months.Times Bloomsbury’s latest targeted purchase is Hodder Education’s higher ed textbooks covering media and communications, history […]
Bidness News: Springer Falls Short; RBI Dumps Travel Mags; Bertelsmann Gets Music Money from KKR
Second-round bids for a portion of Springer Science and Business Media are said to have fallen “signficantly short” of the target of 500 million euros for a stake of up to 49 percent. Owners Cinven and Candover are reported to have asked the bidders to try again, please. Reuters says “two of the sources said a valuation of 350 million to 380 million euros for a 49 percent stake was a reasonable estimate…. Proceeds would be used to tackle high looming debt payments Springer is unable to meet.”Reuters Meanwhile, after failing to sell RBI whole last year, Reed Elsevier is […]
Penguin UK to Cut "About 100" People
One of the few big trade publishers to not cut jobs since the recession hit last fall, Penguin UK is now taking some of the steepest cuts of any UK publisher (both Random UK and HarperCollins UK had significant layoffs earlier this year.) The company said today it “anticipated…the loss of around 100 jobs in the UK” after the the mandated consultation period with employees. Penguin positions the realignments as “a series of changes to its UK business which are designed to strengthen the appeal and relevance of its publishing, reduce costs in all areas of the business, and prepare […]