Hours before Monday’s midnight deadline to submit public comments on the Department of Justice’s settlement with three publishers on ebook price fixing, a group of independent publishers, including Grove/Atlantic, Norton, Perseus, Abrams, Chronicle Books, Chicago Review Press, New Directions, and Workman Publishing, submitted a joint letter to the DOJ objecting to the settlement terms as they “lack an adequate factual basis, are contrary to the public interest and should be rejected” on the grounds that it will “adversely impact competition.” The letter was sent on behalf of the group, banding together as the Independent Book Publishers, by Cravath, Swaine & […]
Legal
Judge Cote Sets eBook Lawsuit Trial Date for June 3, 2013
At a status conference Friday afternoon in federal court Judge Denise Cote set a trial date of June 3, 2013 for the DOJ’s ebook price fixing lawsuit against remaining plaintiffs Apple, Penguin, and Macmillan. And as widely noted already, June 3 also marks the beginning of next year’s Book Expo conference; it’s not clear as to whether Judge Cote chose the date by design. What is clear is that Judge Cote wants the case to move swiftly, since the date she chose is more than three months ahead of the September 30, 2013 date proposed by the DOJ. “Several parties, […]
Court Approves HMH Restructuring Plan, So Long As Case Moves Out of New York
At a hearing Thursday morning in federal bankruptcy court Judge Robert Gerber approved Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s restructuring plan to exit the pre-packaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy filed on May 21, Dow Jones reports. The plan will wipe out more than $3 billion in remaining debt left over from Riverdeep’s heavily leveraged merger of Houghton Mifflin and Harcourt, allow Citibank’s $500 million loan to serve as the company’s exit financing, and leave HMH with approximately $110 million in net debt and about $150 million of cash on hand. HMH expects to pay down its loan debt by 2017. While almost all objections […]
People, Etc.
Derek Krissoff has been named the new editor in chief for the University of Nebraska Press, effective July 16. He has been a senior acquisitions editor at the University of Georgia Press since 2006. John W. Warren has joined Georgetown University Press as marketing and sales director. He has spent the past twelve years as marketing director of RAND Corporation’s publications department. KC Smythe will retire on June 15 from his position as national account manager at Hachette Book Group, after 10 years with the company. Prior to Hachette, he spent 17 years at Ingram, mostly in the buying department, and 6 years as […]
Class Action Suit Filed Against PublishAmerica Alleging “Deceptive Trade Practices”
After years of news reports recounted all manner of dubious practices with respect to its treatment of authors, PublishAmerica is now the defendant in a class-action lawsuit filed June 11 in Maryland State Court alleging a longstanding history of “deceptive trade practices.” In the complaint, first reported on by Writer Beware, plaintiffs Darla Yoos, Edwin McCall, and Kerry Levine say PublishAmerica “presents itself as a traditional publisher but makes money off of its authors” by “falsely representing the services it offered”; provides “services not reasonably designed to promote book sales” leading to significant expenditures by authors; publishes books “riddled with […]
Barnes & Noble Chairman Riggio Will Pay $29 Million To Settle Shareholder Suit Over College Acquisition
The long-running litigation surrounding Barnes & Noble’s August 2009 acquisition of BN College from company founder and chairman Leonard Riggio is finally over, as Riggio has agreed to settle a series of lawsuits launched by shareholders with a $29 million payment from personal funds. But he won’t actually pay out any money personally; rather, he will forgo some money that is currently owed to him by Barnes & Noble. The settlement reduces by $22.75 million a still outstanding $150 million promissory note that Barnes & Noble owes to Riggio as part of College’s acquisition, plus a $6.3 million reduction in […]