As of August 31, Jana Partners no longer held any shares in Barnes & Noble, the company disclosed in an SEC filing on Tuesday. The investment firm, which owned 7 million shares of the bookseller when they first filed disclosure forms in April, still held a little over 4 million shares as of their most recent previous filing at the end of June. BN’s stock has been trading near a 52-week low over the past three weeks. At Bertelsmann‘s annual meeting gathering hundreds of executives companywide in Gutersloh, Germany, ceo Thomas Rabe said “the group does ‘not have all the […]
International News
Pietsch Will Take Over As Hachette CEO Next Year When Young Returns to UK; Remains Chairman and Takes On Other Lagardere Roles
Hachette Book Group USA has announced their succession plan as chairman and ceo for the past seven years David Young prepares to return to the UK next year to rejoin his family (who relocated back there some time ago). As of April 1, 2013, Young will relinquish the post of ceo, while remaining as chairman. Thereafter, Young expects to be in the US approximately one week a month. Little, Brown publisher Michael Pietsch will take over as ceo of HBG USA on April 1, 2013, still reporting to Young–though he will have “full responsibility for the company’s profitability and direction.” […]
People
Former Harper UK executive John Bond and former Harper Press senior editor Annabel Wright have formed Whitefox Publishing Services. They “deliver bespoke, cost-effective and flexible creative excellence to help publishers, agents and writers to solve every publishing challenge.” Eric Winbolt has been promoted to the newly created role of digital creative director at Harper UK, reporting to group publisher Belinda Budge. As part of the process set in motion in June when Sainsbury took over HMV’s majority stake in Anobii, ceo Matteo Berlucchi and coo Matthew Hardcastle are leaving the company next week. Sainsbury executive Mark Bennett will serve as […]
Company Source Says Idea of A Bertelsmann IPO Is Off Again; Flammarion Sells for Less; Tesco Buys Mobcast
Shortly after Bertelsmann changed its corporate structure to allow for a modest offering of shares to the public–albeit a small stake, with limited or no influence over how the company is run–a source inside the company tells Germany’s financial newspaper Handelsblatt “a flotation is off the table as the family doesn’t want an IPO.” New ceo Thomas Rabe is the one who told press in March that the organizational change “opens up the option of raising equity from third parties,” noting that “clearly if we are going to make more strategic and sizable investments, then more capital will be required.” But […]
Nook Adds Argos, Blackwell’s, and Foyles as UK Partners
Barnes & Noble announced that retailer Argos, academic bookseller Blackwell’s and independent bookstore Foyles will also sell the Nook in the UK as of October, after announcing its deal with John Lewis earlier in the week. The Argos deal is particularly significant as it means the Simple Touch and GlowLight devices will be sold in a chain of 700 stores, while Blackwell’s and Foyles enables BN to have some bookstore presence to compete with WHSmith (which stocks Kobo) and Waterstones (which sells Kindle.) In a statement BN director of digital products Jamie Iannone touted that “Argos built its brand on […]
People, Etc.
Annie Stone has joined Harlequin Teen as associate editor. Previously she was an assistant editor at Harper. Kristina Aven has joined Little, Brown Children’s as a publicist. She was at Penguin Children’s. Ann Dye will join Little, the unit as associate director, brand marketing for James Patterson. She was most recently a marketing manager at Disney Publishing Worldwide. At Canada’s Kids Can Press, managing editor Semareh Al-Hillal has been promoted to the new position of associate publisher, responsible for the day-to-day operations of the editorial, editorial services and design departments, reporting to acting publisher Lisa Lyons. Jennifer Grimbleby has been promoted to production editor; DoEun Kwon is now production editor; Adrienne […]