The Authors Guild made a statement on Monday in support of authors who are owed royalties by publisher Albert Whitman and Company, calling for “transparency and immediate rectification of past due royalties.” They write, “Over the last few years, the Authors Guild has contacted AW&C on numerous occasions to convey members’ concerns involving delayed royalty payments and the accuracy of accounting reports.” The statement followed a November 9 thread on Twitter from Joan He, author of YA book Descendant of the Crane, that said she was considering suing the company for copyright infringement. He wrote, “Back in May, they failed […]
Finance
Deed Shows Sale Price for Quad’s West Virginia Plant
When Quad sold their two remaining book printing plants to Bertelsmann’s Berryville Graphics on October 31, the details of the sale were not provided. Now the Herald-Mail reports that a deed recording the sale, filed with the County Clerk’s office on Tuesday, indicates that Berryville paid $11.3 million for the facility in Martinsburg, West Virginia. (They also purchased a plant of similar size in Fairfield, PA.) Bertelsmann Printing Group vp John Twomey, indicated that the Martinsburg plant has about 200 employees, as does the facility in Pennsylvania, with employment “down about one-third from pre-COVID-19 levels.” They add, “The major change […]
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s Biggest Investor Wants Out
In stark contrast to the company’s official happy talk about selling off their heritage by disposing of the trade division and positioning a struggling textbook publisher as a “pure-play learning technology company,” Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s biggest investor indicated that they have had enough. Anchore Advisors, the largest shareholder with just under 16 percent of shares, filed a form with the SEC indicating that they want to sell. The investment firm — whose senior portfolio manager Daniel Allen sits on the HMH board — and HMH have terminated an investor rights agreement that dates back to 2012 and “Anchorage has requested […]
Lagardere Denies French Media Reports that Company Will Sell International Publishers to Vivendi
During yesterday’s presentation of third quarter results, Arnaud Lagardère denied rumors circulating in French media that he had been negotiating the sale of Hachette’s international business to Vivendi. “There are no negotiations on any disposal of the group; no negotiations on any change of limited partnership currently,” said Mr. Lagardere, then added, “Obviously, we’re having some discussions with all the shareholders because it is good governance.” But according to French station BMF-TV, and consistent with speculation that we have covered for a while now, Mr. Lagardere, and investors Bernard Arnault of LVMH and Vincent Bollore of Vivendi have been in […]
Penguin Random House Parent Bertelsmann Controls More US Book Printing with Quad Acquisition
Berryville Graphics, a division of Bertelsmann Printing, has acquired the two book manufacturing plants that Quad has been trying to sell for a year now. Berryville has bought the facilities in Fairfield, PA (370,000 square feet) and Martinsburg, WV (380,000 square feet, which focuses on paperbacks). The transaction closed on October 31. It’s a significant expansion for Berryville, which Dun & Bradstreet estimated had sales of about $120 million in 2019. The money-losing Quad book printing business — acquired from World Color, previously known as Quebecor — had annual sales of about $200 million. They sold their big, 1 million-square-foot […]
Booktopia Sets IPO for December 3
The Australian online bookseller Booktopia announced terms for a planned December 3 listing on the ASX exchange, with an aim to raise $25 million in proceeds from new shares. Existing investors plan a selldown of shares that would make another $18 million of stock available. At the current projected price, the company would have a market capitalization of $315 million. (Previously reported fiscal 2020 sales were $165 million, with EBITDA of $6 million. At publication, PL had not seen the official term sheet.) The company intends to use the cash to expand their distribution center and repay debt, as well […]