The Independent says that Bain Capital is the only remaining bidder for Reed Elsevier’s magazine unit, as TPG has dropped out. Facing a bid of about $1 billion–half of what they were hoping for, “Reed Elsevier is understood to be unhappy with some of the conditions of Bain’s bid, which includes a complicated earn-out structure – a move that would effectively tie key executives to RBI for a number of years.” They also report that ceo Crispin Davis has “invited” Apollo Group–which dropped out of the bidding earlier in the year (featured in the Sunday’s NYT business section for their […]
Finance
HMH Speaks: "Streamlining" Underway, with "Reduction of Some [Hundreds of?] Positions"
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt confirmed today “it is moving forward with the planned combination of various of its businesses into a new K-12 organization comprised of School Publishers, Holt McDougal, Supplemental Publishers, Heinemann, HMH Learning Technology and International Publishers. These businesses were brought together with the acquisition of Harcourt by Houghton Mifflin in December 2007, and the integration process has been underway since that time.” They note that “the streamlining of the business will result in the elimination of some positions, even as new roles are created that will let the company serve educators and students in new and unique ways.” […]
Bertram's Sale Imminent?
Michael Neil’s latest quote on Bertram’s: “We are up for sale and a sale agreement is imminent. We are confident it will be sorted by the end of the week.”Norwich paper
Will Borders Need A Reverse Stock Split?
Absent other dramatic changes, it’s possible that Borders will need to execute a reverse stock split if its shares stay below $1 as the Ann Arbor News notes. “According to the NYSE, a company is sent a delisting warning letter if its average closing stock price falls below $1 for 30 consecutive trading days. The company then has six months to get the share price above $1.” Borders Anne Roman comments: “We are of course mindful of the stock price and we are mindful of what the New York Stock Exchange rules are as it applies to stock prices. We […]
The Next Domino: Layoffs at S&S
Simon & Schuster has “enacted a reduction in staff in which 35 positions across the company were eliminated, from areas including our publishing divisions and international, operations and sales,” according to a memo from ceo Carolyn Reidy. Despite having “literally examined our budget line-by-line to find those areas large and small where we might further economize,” Reidy says “today’s action is an unavoidable acknowledgment of the current bookselling marketplace and what may very well be a prolonged period of economic instability. In light of this uncertainty, we must responsibly position ourselves for challenges both near term and long.”
Today's Woolworths/Bertram's/EUK Update
As usual, the British press is all over the map with their reports. The Times warns that “the entire Woolworths empire, including its stake in 2Entertain, the BBC joint venture, is likely to be in administration by the end of the week.” They add that “the BBC is trying to cut its initial 100 million pound offer to take full control of 2Entertain.” But the Guardian fires back with a spokeswoman for the BBC calling the threat of administration for 2Entertain “categorically untrue.” She adds, “Our view is it is not going to go into administration, you can’t put a […]