Hachette Livre announced that it has increased its stake in Russian publisher Azbooka-Atticus, growing their 25 percent interest to a 49 percent holding in the company.Azbooka-Atticus is Russia’s third largest publisher, publishing 2,000 titles a year, with Hachette reporting annual sales of over $50 million. The company says in the announcement, “The move reflects the successful cooperation between the two companies since Hachette Livre became a shareholder in March 2011, the vibrancy of the Russian book market, and the fine performance of Azbooka-Atticus under its new management.”
International News
Pearson “On Track,” and PRH “Performed Well”
Pearson released a brief third quarter trading update (free of actual numbers, in the European style), showing sales for the first nine months up 1 percent at constant exchange rates and flat on an underlying basis, while declining on real terms because the pound was strong against the dollar earlier in the year. (Since the close of the third quarter the pound has fallen another 2 percent against the dollar.) Those results are just slightly below where they stood in the more robust half-year report. Chief executive John Fallon says in the release: “We are reiterating our guidance for this […]
Books Sales Fall Again At WH Smith, As Profits Improve
WH Smith reported preliminary results for fiscal 2014, with sales at their High Street stores falling 6 percent to £684 million. Book sales overall fell more, down 8 percent for the year as the “market continues to be challenging” (after declining 6 percent in the previous year). Same-store sales were down 5 percent, but their cost savings program helped profit for the segment rise 4 percent to £58 million. The company notes: “While the eBooks market continues to see growth, it is evolving as we had expected with rates of growth and value penetration slowing. eBooks remain a relatively small […]
Briefs: Bloomsbury Considered Possible Osprey Buyer; Canongate 2013 Results; and More
On the heels of the Osprey Group selling off Angry Robot, Watkins, and Nourish earlier this month to entrepreneur Etan Ilfeld, the remaining divisions are still potentially up for sale, with Bloomsbury considered to be the most likely buyer, the Bookseller reports. They say the current speculation is that “both Bloomsbury and Hachette were in the running to acquire [Osprey]” but that Bloomsbury is the front-runner. That said, “neither Bloomsbury, Sullivan, Osprey chairman Robin Black nor Alcuin Capital would respond to requests for details of the sale.” Canongate reported strong results for 2013, with full-year sales at £10.4 million, up 7.8 percent […]
Harper Germany to Launch In 2015; Will Publish Silva In 16 Territories
HarperCollins is creating a HarperCollins Germany publishing program, expanding on the operation in Hamburg acquired as part of their purchase of Harlequin and launching in fall 2015 with approximately 50 Harper branded titles. The German initiative is itself just a first step, as Harper plans to take those 50 titles and others to in Japan, Sweden, Holland and Spain “in the coming months,” with more territories also in process. “In the markets where we own 100 percent of the [Harlequin] companies we’ll go very quickly,” says ceo Brian Murray. The Harlequin units operate as joint ventures in France, Italy and Brazil, where “there’s […]
Corporate: EC Investigates Amazon’s Tax Break; Frankfurt News; and More
The European Commission “opened an in-depth investigation” into the 2003 sweetheart tax deal between Luxembourg and Amazon. This is not the tax loophole that lets Amazon sell digital goods across Europe at Luxembourg’s low VAT rate, under the pretense that they are selling the items from that nation (and that loophole goes away in 2015 regardless). Rather, this is a deal that lets Amazon pay almost no corporate tax on their €13.6 billion in Euroeapn sales. In the current structure, the FT reports, Amazon’s Luxembourg operating unit showed minimal profit of €29 million on those sales, though it paid €2.1 […]