Cengage Learning filed suit against Houghton Miffln Harcourt in a Manhattan Federal Court, seeking at least $20 million and alleging breach of warranty, misrepresentation and bad faith. They allege that Houghton pumped inexpensive college textbooks to international buyers with “known propensities to redistribute these textbooks back into the U.S. market through unauthorized distribution channels” prior to the sale of the division. They complain that those sales inhibited Cengage’s ability to sell to legitimate international distributors and poisoned the US market as those companies redistributed the cheap copies back into the home market. Cengage claims HMH agreed “to not behave ‘outside […]
Finance
Sales Still Down at Bertelsmann
In a short (and general) third-quarter trading update, Bertelsmann says that its “strict cost discipline is producing positive fiscal developments.” Sales fell 4.5 percent of 3.6 billion euros, as net income improved to 87 million euros (up from just 15 million euros a year ago). For the the first nine months of their fiscal year, sales are down 6.6 percent and operating EBIT has declined almost 19 percent. No divisional figures were provided.Statement
Borders to Slash Another 200 Walden Outlets in January
With competitor Barnes & Noble preparing to close all but the last two of their B. Dalton mall stores by January, Borders announced after yesterday that they will close approximately 200 of the remaining mall-based Waldenbooks outlets in January. The move will leave Borders with about 130 mall-based locations remaining. The company estimates that 1,500 jobs–mostly part-time–will be eliminated as a result. CEO Ron Marshall says, “We believe there remains an opportunity to profitably operate a much smaller Waldenbooks segment that complements our core Borders superstore business and continues to serve readers in their communities. Through this right-sizing, we will […]
Bookselling: Borders Will Ship It If They Don't Have It; Leading Australian Chains May Go Public
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.” […]
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 […]