Macmillan ceo John Sargent released a letter to the company’s authors, illustrators and agents explaining their position in declining to settlement the lawsuit filed Wednesday by the Department of Justice: “The charge is civil, not criminal. Let me start by saying that Macmillan did not act illegally. Macmillan did not collude.” As Sargent recalls poignantly, “It is … hard to settle a lawsuit when you know you have done no wrong. The government’s charge is that Macmillan’s CEO colluded with other CEO’s in changing to the agency model. I am Macmillan’s CEO and I made the decision to move Macmillan […]
Legal
DOJ Formally Sues Five Publishers Over Introduction of Agency; Settlement with Some Expected Later Today
As anticipated, the Department of Justice formally filed suit Wednesday morning in a New York Federal Court against the five original agency publishers and Apple. The suit claims that the parties colluded to introduce agency pricing: “Defendants’ ongoing conspiracy and agreement have caused e-book consumers to pay tens of millions of dollars more for e-books than they otherwise would have paid,” the filing alleges. Macmillan ceo John Sargent has acknowledged that his company has declined to settle and will fight the litigation. “Macmillan did not act illegally. Macmillan did not collude,” he wrote to the community. (See story below for […]
Settlement With Justice By Some Publishers Looms…Or Not
Since last week, people with knowledge of settlement discussions between book publishers using the agency model for ebooks and the Justice Department have said with authority that some kind of agreement might be imminent. Absent an actual settlement and final details of how it would work, we didn’t think there was a story there–given the weeks of stories elsewhere saying there might be a settlement soon. But the Justice Department apparently continues to keep the WSJ informed, fueling the presumption within publishing that they are trying to press in public a case that they have yet to close in private […]
International: Barnes & Noble Incorporates Digital Media Company In Germany; Dutch Book Chain Selexyz Files for Bankruptcy; And More
As another piece of Barnes & Noble’s coming international expansion, TechCrunch notes a Buchreport finding that BN incorporated a new company, Barnes & Noble Digital Media GmbH, in Germany on March 15. Company vp, general counsel and corporate secretary Eugene DeFelice is listed on the new Germany company’s incorporation papers, from which one can infer that BN has formed the legal entity but does not yet have an operational plan. BN already has an existing partnership with German bookstore aggregator BookWire. Once-dominant Dutch book chain Selexyz has been suffering from serious financial trouble since last fall (and never really recovered […]
Shareholder Suit Against Riggio and Two Barnes & Noble Directors Moves to June Trial
A shareholder lawsuit against Barnes & Noble chairman Len Riggio and two former company directors, Lawrence Zilavy and Michael Del Giudice, over the public company’s 2009 buyout of BN College will move forward to a trial tentatively set to begin June 18. Delaware Chancery Court Judge Leo Strine dismissed three independent directors from the suit, along with vice chairman Steve Riggio (who had recused himself from voting on the acquisition). As Bloomberg summarizes, “the investors argue that the board allowed Riggio to dictate terms and timing of the 2009 buyout of Barnes & Noble College Booksellers Inc. and didn’t force […]
Briefs: Early Vonnegut Novella Published as Kindle Single; Patient Says Doctor Violated Her Privacy in 2009 Book
A previously unpublished novella by Kurt Vonnegut, BASIC TRAINING, is available today from RosettaBooks as a Kindle Single for $1.99. The 22,000-word autobiographical novella, “satirizing the military, authoritarianism, and most of the assumed mid-century myths of the family” was originally written in the late 1940s and meant to be published under the pseudonym “Mark Harvey.” In a complaint filed in Rhode Island federal court on March 16 and obtained by Courthouse News, Gabrielle Lisnoff claimed that Dr. Michael Stein, who treated her for drug addiction between 2005 and 2010, violated her privacy by using “her most private, embarrassing, and traumatizing […]