Federal bankruptcy court put its official stamp on the end of Borders, as the chain’s liquidation plan was approved by Judge Martin Glenn on Tuesday. Approximately 98 percent of creditors holding $211.5 million in debt voted to approve the plan. As previously reported, unsecured creditors owed between $812 million and $850 million will receive 4 to 10 cents on the dollar, but court papers indicate that recovery may be in the “higher end of the range,” with Borders lawyer Andrew Glenn stipulating in court that percentage may be even higher still, according to Bloomberg. In addition, Borders got the go-ahead to […]
Legal
Agency Lawsuits Will Be Handled In New York
Agency publishers got a measure of what passes for good news in today’s climate on Friday. A judicial panel on multidistrict litigation decided on Friday that the plethora of class action suits alleging conspiracy to fix ebook prices will be consolidated under the jurisdiction of the Southern District of New York. The panel said it “will serve the convenience of the parties and witnesses and promote the just and efficient conduct of this litigation.” The panel noted that “nearly all defendants, including all publishing defendants, are located in New York City, giving it a nexus to the allegations.” And “all […]
DOJ Confirms to Congress They Are Looking at eBooks
While the Department of Justice has previously acknowledged that it’s antritust division has been looking at agency ebook pricing, yesterday a particular DOJ official went on the record for the first time. Acting antitrust chief Sharis Pozen told a Congressional committee at a hearing that “we are also investigating the electronic book industry, along with the European Commission and the states attorneys general,” quoted in the WSJ. Of course DOJ began an investigation into Apple’s practices in the market for digital music–where it actually is dominant–back in the spring of 2010. The Texas attorney general’s office has been looking at […]
Borders Creditors Will Get Only 4 to 10 Cents On the Dollar
Borders’ current plan for Chapter 11 liquidation proceedings got a preliminary go-ahead in federal bankruptcy court Monday afternoon, when Judge Martin Glenn signed off on the company’s explanatory disclosure statement of their liquidation program. Borders currently expects to pay unsecured creditors somewhere between 4 and 10 percent of the $812 million to $850 million they are owed. Among other items gleaned from the documents: at some point “during the course of these cases,” Perseus resigned from the creditors committee (as did Sony Music). Borders continues to insist that they “intend to market [their] Kobo stock for sale.” They hold roughly 9.9 percent […]
Authors Guild Says Kindle Lending Library Is “Outside the Bounds of the Publisher’s Authority”
In a strongly worded memo issued Monday afternoon, the Authors Guild took issue with Amazon’s Kindle Lending Library for Prime customers, in particular those titles available without express permission from publishers and authors. “How can Amazon get away with this? By giving its boilerplate contract with these publishers a tortured reading,” the Guild said, adding that permission appeared to be dispensed with “because, as Amazon apparently sees it, its contracts with these publishers merely require it to pay publishers the wholesale price of the books that Amazon Prime customers download.” The reasoning is “nonsense”, from the AG’s understanding of Amazon’s […]
Bookselling: BN Asked Justice to Investigate Microsoft; Australia Prepares to Reduce Import Ban to 14 Days
In documents filed with the International Trade Commission as part of the patent-infringement lawsuit brought by Microsoft, Barnes & Noble indicated that over the spring and summer they appealed to the Justice Department to investigate Microsoft on anti-trust grounds. “Microsoft’s willingness to bully small players with expensive litigation raises a substantial barrier to entry in any market in which it claims dominance,” general counself for BN Eugene DeFelice wrote, the WSJ reports. “Microsoft’s exorbitant licenses for its patents entrench the dominant players in the relevant markets because those players can afford to take a license, while small players cannot.” WSJ […]