Quarto has quickly terminated the negotiations with a potential acquirer that were initiated five weeks ago, and announced on August 8 when they reported results for the first half of the year. The issue was not price — the company continues to say that was “attractive and reflective of the inherent value of the business” — but rather timing, which does not entirely make sense. Their statement asserts that “discussions were not progressing to the satisfaction of the board,” citing how “it became clear that the regulatory approvals required by the bidder to complete the proposed acquisition were increasingly less likely to […]
Finance
Barnes & Noble Education Buys Online Writing Business for $58.5 Million
Barnes & Noble Education acquired Student Brands on Friday for $58.5 million in cash. Student Brands is a subscription-based writing skills services business, with properties in the US, Brazil, France and Mexico. BNED has been trying to buy its way to growth, so far without convincing investors. Earlier this year they paid the Riggios $174 million to buy MBS Textbook Exchange (and in 2016, their more modest acquisitions included LoudCloud, for $17.9 million, and Promoversity). Despite this year’s over $230 million in acquisitions, the company has a market cap of less than $340 million. Release In other acquisitions, Netflix made […]
Activist Investor Is Sure Someone (Else) Should Take Barnes & Noble Private
Another activist investor, Sandell Capital Management, has looked at Barnes & Noble’s beaten down share price and become convinced that with some agitation a private buyer will come forward. The campaign is happening via press release, with Sandell publishing its letter to the BN board asking the company to hire an investment banker to go find someone willing to take the bookseller private. They are convinced a private buyer would like to pay $12 a share or more (or about $900 million), after BKS shares dipped below $7 a share during yesterday’s trading. The immediate effect is that the stock […]
Finance: BN Education Sinks, More From Bertelsmann
The stock of Barnes & Noble Education was hit hard after their fourth quarter earnings report on Wednesday morning, falling over 20 percent to a new all-time low at the end of trading on Thursday, below $8 a share — and still falling further in the first hour on Friday. (The stock was spun-off at around $13.50 a share two years ago, in August 2015.) The unit’s market capitalization has fallen almost in half, starting at just under $650 million when it was split from Barnes & Noble, Inc. and now at under $330 million. (BN’s market cap has rebounded […]
Pearson Settles for Selling 22 Percent of PRH for About $1 Billion
Rather than exit the Penguin Random House joint venture entirely, Pearson agreed to sell a 22 percent stake to majority owner Bertelsmann in a deal yielding $1.034 billion, as part of a recapitalization of the trade publisher, while retaining a 25 percent holding going forward. The deal gives PRH an enterprise value of $3.55 billion, at 1.05 times annual sales of $3.387 billion (or 6.7x EBITDA). Pearson will receive $968 million “from the sale and associated dividend payments” (the sale itself yields $781 million at the enterprise value), plus another dividend of $66 million in April 2018. The original deal […]
Quarto Falls on Profit Warning, and China Literature Heads for IPO
Ahead of reporting results for the first half of 2017, Quarto Group warned that its earnings guidance “for 2017 and beyond has been set too high.” That’s due to both “a lower-than expected trading performance in the year to date” during “the ongoing soft retail environment” as well as an accounting adjustment from the previous year. With their publishing program weighted towards the fall, they still expect “to perform significantly better in the second half.” The wording sounds mild, but the stock market reacted strongly: Quarto’s have fallen over 25 percent since the announcement. Additionally, Brian Porritt has been appointed interim […]