Penguin Random House has sold the Seattle-based company Smashing Ideas, which they bought seven years ago (the first acquisition under Markus Dohle, prior to the merger with Penguin). The unit, which provides “consults across the product design and development lifecycle,” was sold to IT service provider Luxoft, for undisclosed terms. PRH US president, director of strategic development Nina von Moltke says in the announcement: “Penguin Random House and Smashing Ideas have enjoyed a long and productive working relationship. While we have continued to work together on several exciting digital product experiences, we believe that moving forward, Smashing Ideas, and its exceptionally […]
Finance
Accountant Charged With Embezzling $3.4 Million From Donadio & Olson
A recently unsealed federal criminal complaint revealed that longtime Donadio & Olson accountant Darin Webb was charged earlier this month with embezzling $3.4 million from the literary agency between January 2011 and March 2018. According to the 5-page complaint, Webb, who was employed by Donadio & Olson as their bookkeeper since 2001, “used his position as the Agency’s bookkeeper to transfer more than $3.4 million of funds, belonging to the Agency and the Agency’s clients, from the Agency’s bank accounts to bank accounts that [he] controlled. In order to evade detection of his criminal conduct and carry out his scheme, […]
Corporate Briefs: Lagardere Leaker, Quarto Qualms
Last week French newspaper Liberation covered an anonymous email sent to “a good part of the French establishment” titled “The Unbearable Impunity of Lagardere,” a six-page PDF criticizing Arnaud Lagardere and his leadership of the company that bears his family’s name. The point of the document is to assert that Lagardere has failed in managing the company he controls: “He has striven for 15 years to unstitch the work of his father. Fifteen years of calamitous results. Anywhere else, a manager like that would have been dismissed.” It claims to quote company executives, past and present, including “a former senior […]
People, Etc.
At Harper Collins, Jennifer Civiletto is moving to the Harper Group as senior publishing manager, reporting to Amy Baker. She was publishing manager, working with former president and publisher Michael Morrison. Following the elimination of Ben Ball’s job at Penguin Random House Australia, senior editor in the same Literary division Meredith Rose resigned “as a consequence” of Ball’s firing. Corporate The CBS board approved a dividend that would dilute the voting control of National Amusements by an 11 to 3 vote on Thursday: “If consummated, the dividend would enable the Company to operate as an independent, non-controlled company and more fully evaluate […]
Orbach Retakes Chair at Quarto In Surprise Annual Meeting Vote
Quarto co-founder and former chairman and ceo Laurence Orbach restored himself to the publisher’s board and the position of executive chairman in a surprise vote at the company’s annual meeting Thursday. Orbach still controls approximately 20 percent of the company’s shares, and he was supported by 27 percent owner Chuk Kin Lau of Lion Rock Group Limited (a printer that is said to do business with the publisher). Together, they voted to block the reelection to the board of chairman Peter Read, along with Leslie-Ann Reed, Jess Burley and Claire Capeci. Instead, Orbach, Lau, Mei Lan Lam (CFO of Lion Rock), and former […]
CBS Files Suit to Block Interference from Shari Redstone, Dilute Her Voting Power
CBS has gone to war with their controlling owner, Shari Redstone at National Amusements, asking the Delaware Chancery Court for a temporary restraining order while the company considers a move that would dilute Redstone’s voting control. CBS has called a special board meeting for Thursday, May 17, and asks the court “to prevent any action to interfere with that meeting or the effectiveness of actions taken at the meeting.” The broadcaster’s special committee, formed to evaluate Redstone’s desire to have CBS merge with Viacom, has recommended the “issuance of a stock dividend that would dilute NAI’s voting power… from 80 […]