In a press release issued this morning in German, Bertelsmann announced the sale of their British book clubs, Book Club Associates (BCA), to Munich’s holding company Aurelius. The transfer is scheduled for January 1. BCA has approximately 700,000 members and sales are said to be in the “middle double-digit million euro range.” This will be the first British property in Aurelius’s portfolio.
Finance
A Little More Time for Redstone
Today’s deadline for Sumner Redstone’s National Amusements to repay $800 million in debt has “has been extended as the company makes headway in negotiations with its banks,” the WSJ reports–even as he and Shari Redstone remain at adds over the solution. “Shari, who runs the movie theaters, remains deeply opposed to sacrificing them and has been putting pressure on her father and his advisers to consider other asset sales. The disagreement has become so heated that Ms. Redstone and her father are only communicating by fax, according to people familiar with the situation.”WSJ
Credit Insurance Lifted for Borders UK
Top credit insurer Euler Hermes is continuing to pull insurance cover from a number of retail operations, now including all of Borders UK, as well as the UK’s Book People. The decision is reportedly based on the overall economic decline rather than specific weaknesses at those operations. The Bookseller says that “the action has prompted at least one distributor to advise its clients to reconsider their trading limits. Hachette-owned LBS has emailed its publisher clients warning them that it wants to be told of the new limits by 23rd December or the supply of books will be placed on hold.”Bookseller
Cumberland's Remaining Assets; Sourcebooks' Growth Plans
The Tennessean covers the folding of Cumberland House as Sourcebooks takes over rights to almost a hundred titles and absorbs three out of 20 employees. Sourcebooks owner Dominique Raccah tells the local Daily Herald “There’s a lot of opportunity in this market, but maybe I’m the only one who thinks that.” She adds, “We think this is a great environment for growth.” That paper says Raccah “has been in talks with three companies” about further acquisitions and is “also planning to hire three more employees, a salesperson in the Naperville office and acquisition editors in the company’s New York and […]
More Cuts at Random House
In the ongoing restructuring at Random House, Inc., additional positions have been eliminated at the Doubleday and Broadway imprints. We were told by one person of at least 6 job cuts, including four people from the art department and one from marketing. Crain’s asserts “22 positions were eliminated from the former Doubleday Broadway,” only citing “industry sources.” Spokesman David Drake confirmed for us “that a number of position across various functional areas have been eliminated and that these changes are a consequence of the restructuring at Random House that was announced two weeks ago.” He declined to address the number […]
Galassi On the Changes at FSG
Since news of companywide cutbacks and reorganization at Macmillan began to spread, the Observer has pursued a singular focus on what the changes mean for Farrar, Straus. Today they reproduce a memo sent by publisher Jonathan Galassi to staff yesterday afternoon. In addition to “reduc[ing] staff in certain areas,” he describes “a plan that will reduce FSG’s cost structure and help us to be more efficient in what everyone recognizes is an extraordinarily difficult environment. In some areas, we will rely more on the existing Macmillan infrastructure than we have up to now, to achieve greater effectiveness in an increasingly […]