Shut out of traditional credit markets, Quercus is planning to raise 1.75 million pounds “in additional working capital and to strengthen its balance sheet,” nearly all of which will come from Pentland Group, which currently holds almost 20 percent of the company’s stock. Shareholders must approve a waiver from the takeover code, however, to allow Pentland to increase their stake to more than 30 percent. The thinly-traded company currently has a market cap of 3.1 million pounds, with the stock having fallen over 71 percent in a year. The immediate need is to refinance 775,000 pounds in loans that have […]
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Namrata Tripathi will join Atheneum Children’s as executive editor on December 8. She has most recently been senior editor at Hyperion Children’s. Additionally, associate editor Lisa Cheng will move from Margaret K. McElderry Books to Atheneum, reporting to Tripathi.
Amazon/Penguin Contest Returns
The e-tailer’s Breakthrough Novel Award competition will return for a second year, open to new manuscript submissions as of Groundhog’s Day, 2009, and once again they will partner with the Penguin Group. Amazon calls the first contest “enormously successful,” despite the tepid response from the marketplace to the August release of winner Bill Loehfelm’s FRESH KILLS. (Loehfelm’s book has sold approximately 4,000 copies through outlets tracked by Nielsen Bookscan.) But Penguin has acquired rights to four of the other ten finalists: Bad Things Happen by Harry Dolan (Amy Einhorn Books, July 2009); The Wet Nurse’s Tale by Erica Eisdorfer (Putnam, […]
Show Director Acknowledges BEA at a "Crossroads"
In a blog post, BEA show director Lance Fensterman writes, “BEA is at a cross roads, this point is not lost on me or the BEA team, but at the crossroads I see opportunity and I believe we are aggressively working through a process to evolve the show and serve our customers and our industry ever better.” He adds, ” the current climate has accelerated our action and our customers’ desire for action.” That action includes creating “an executive steering committee to advise us on the most top level issues.” Fensterman says they are examining a number of “big issues,” […]
Meryl Streep to Play Dewey Author
A film version of Vicki Myron’s bestselling DEWEY: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World will feature Meryl Streep as the author. Producers Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey at Temple Hill Entertainment partners will make the move with New Line. (The production company is also responsible for the movie adaptation of Stephenie Meyer’s Twlight.)Variety
WH Smith Sales Slide
British-based retailer WH Smith issued a short trading update for September 1 through November, when same-store High Street sales fell 4 percent. They added: “Whilst we remain cautious about the consumer environment and anticipate competitive trading in our markets over the key Christmas period, we have planned accordingly, and the current financial year has started as we expected.” In other UK financials, sales at Canongate for calendar 2007 declined almost 4 percent, down to 7.8 million pounds from 8.1 million the year before, while pre-tax profits fell sharply to 271,000 pounds, 60 percent decline from the year before. The company’s […]