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 […]
Legal
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A previously unpublished novella by Kurt Vonnegut, BASIC TRAINING, is available today from RosettaBooks as a Kindle Single for $1.99.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 […]
Connecticut Court Ruling Says Scholastic Book Clubs Liable For Sales Tax
One week after issuing third quarter results, Scholastic issued a statement saying that the company needed to revise its earnings report after they were notified that the Connecticut Supreme Court “had reversed an earlier trial court decision and found that Scholastic Book Clubs was liable for sales taxes relating to the operation of its school book clubs business in Connecticut.” The Hartford Courant reported that the unanimous ruling, issued on March 19, said Scholastic “owes $3.2 million plus interest and penalties going back to 1995 to the state,” based on the Book Clubs division having enough of a presence in […]
Puzo Estate Says Sequel Rights Were Reserved, and Countersues Paramount
Executor of the Mario Puzo estate Anthony Puzo replied to Paramount’s suit seeking to block publication by Grand Central of a new Godfather-related book, THE FAMILY CORLEONE, and countersued, looking to terminate Paramount’s original contract for The Godfather and asking for at least $10 million in damages. Like Paramount’s original suit, the filing cites a small portion of language from the original agreement and–like Paramount–the defendant does not attach the actual contracts as evidence. Underneath the claims and counterclaims, however, the dispute appears to be more about the future of The Godfather film franchise than anything else. Attorney Bert Fields, one […]
Dorchester Says It’s Entertaining Offers From “Reputable” Houses
Following up on our report last week on the Dorchester’s deep financial woes and foreclosure by its owner John Backe, company ceo Robert Anthony sent a letter to authors and agents, obtained by Kristin Nelson and republished on her blog, with further information about the sale process and the status of their office. In the letter Anthony said that Dorchester “has not closed” but due to “challenging economic conditions” they are vacating their offices at 200 Madison Avenue to “become a virtual business,” with a delivery box on East 34 Street. “Though the transition was not as seamless as we […]