Investor David Abrams and Abrams Capital Management took advantage of the opportunity to pare back on their money-losing investments in Barnes & Noble companies. With the rebound in shares of Barnes & Noble Education starting on December 5 as the retailer reported some improvement in profits, Abrams has been a steady seller. According to recent filings, Abrams sold good-sized chunks of BNED shares on December 5, 6, 7, 11, 12 and 13, unloading approximately 1.76 million shares in all. Even with the recent increases, BNED’s stock price is still down about 25 percent for the year, and likely all of […]
Finance
Briefs: New PRH UK Office Building, Hay House Puts Smiley Books On Hold, and More
Penguin Random House UK announced a lease agreement for additional new offices at One Embassy Gardens, between London’s Vauxhall and Battersea, “a short walk” from the existing RH UK office at 20 Vauxhall Bridge Road. The new space has 83,400 square feet across five floors, and includes event space on the ground floor. The company had announced in summer 2016 that it would vacate Transworld’s offices in Ealing and Penguin’s offices in the Strand to consolidate their employees. The new space will be ready at the end of 2019, and the two buildings with “both…be home to a mix of Penguin Random […]
Barnes & Noble Stock Is So Cheap Even Riggio Is Buying Again
With Barnes & Noble’s stock sinking again after last week’s ever-disappointing quarterly results, chairman Len Riggio stepped in to support the price, buying 1 million shares at a weighted average price of $6.8027 per share. Since 2013 Riggio has been a seller of the shares, not a buyer. (In April 2014 he sold 3.7 million shares in a block trade, claiming it was “part of his long-term financial and estate planning.” At the end of 2013, Riggio and his wife had sold 2 million shares.) Riggio is the beneficial owner of 14 million shares now, or 19.3 percent of shares […]
People, Etc.
Penguin Random House chief financial officer Milena Alberti has decided to leave her position at the end of the year after 16 years with the company, the past two as cfo. Deputy cfo James Johnston will lead the finance group in the interim, reporting to ceo Markus Dohle, as the company searches for a permanent successor, which they hope to announce in the first quarter of 2018. Dohle said in the announcement: “I am one of many who has truly valued, enjoyed, and benefited from collaborating with Milena over the years, and I want to express my sincere appreciation for […]
Briefs: NYT’s Top Ten Books, And More
The New York Times Book Review editors announced their top ten books of 2017, with the individual critics’ lists still to come. In fiction, Jesmyn Ward’s National Book Award-winning Sing, Unburied, Sing makes the list, along with NBA shortlisted Pachinko by Min Jin Lee, plus: Autumn, by Ali Smith Exit West, by Mohsin Hamid The Power, by Naomi Alderman The nonfiction list: The Evolution of Beauty, by Richard O. Prum Grant, by Ron Chernow Locking Up Our Own, by James Forman Jr. Prairie Fires, by Caroline Fraser Priestdaddy, by Patricia Lockwood People At Workman Publishing, Caitlin Kleinschmidt has been promoted to national accounts […]
Springer Nature Aims for IPO
Springer Nature, the joint venture between Holtzbrinck and BC Partners, is in discussions with JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley about launching a European IPO some time next year, “people close to the matter” tell Reuters. Those people are touting a potential value of 4 to 5 billion euros for the company. Minority holder BC Partners would sell some of their shares for the public offering, reducing their stake, while 53 percent owner Holtzbrinck might buy more, to retain a big stake. The report says they are considering a capital increase of 700 to 800 million euros, looking to float 25 percent […]