Finance

Quarto ceo CK Lau continues to expand his investment in, and control of, the publisher. Regulatory paperwork indicates that Lau and the printing company he controls acquired another 1.12 million shares of Quarto stock earlier this month. His combined stake now equals 33.63 percent of all shares — up from 20 percent in February 2018 — and he paid the market price of 63.2 pence per share. Yes, that’s as cheap as it sounds; the company’s market cap is about £12.8 million (or a little over $16 million). That’s a third of where it reached in March 2018, and less […]

Attentive readers will recall that we were pretty much alone last Friday in pointing out that the agreement for Barnes & Noble’s proposed sale to Elliott Advisors explicitly allowed the bookseller to continue negotiations with companies that had already made acquisition proposals on or before May 29. Late Monday the WSJ reported that Readerlink “is working toward making a bid…that would top the price” Elliott agreed to pay. We also told you on Friday when the stock was trading above the agreed upon deal price that investors could be expecting a higher bid. In late Monday and early Tuesday trading, […]

Penguin Random House has been selected as the winning bidder in the bankruptcy sale of the book publishing assets of F+W Books. The bid is expected to receive approval from the bankruptcy court on June 10, in which case the sale should close before the end of June. The books division had sales of approximately $22 million in 2018 (80 percent in the US, and 20 percent in the UK). The F+W backlist comprises over 2,000 titles, across imprints including Family Tree, IMPACT, Interweave, Krause Publications, North Light Books, Popular Woodworking, The Quilting Company, and Writer’s Digest. PRH says the […]

The industry was been waiting eagerly and nervously for the conclusion of Barnes & Noble’s long-running exploration of a sale of the company. On Thursday the WSJ reported that hedge fund Elliott Management is the “lead bidder in an auction that could come to a head soon.”  Or not. “The talks could still fall apart and a deal—with Elliott or any of the other bidders that have been circling the company—isn’t guaranteed.” Note that Barnes & Noble is due to report fiscal fourth quarter and full year earnings around June 20, so the expectation has been that the company would […]