A Delaware Appeals Court has refreshed our collective memory on last year’s protracted proxy fight between Barnes & Noble and billionaire Ron Burkle thanks to its ruling yesterday that the poison pill measure, which limits stockholders to 20 percent or less of total company stock, should still be allowed to stand. AP The libel case author Karin Calvo-Goller brought against NYU Law School professor Joseph H.H. Weiler for publishing a negative review of her book has been dismissed by a French court, which said “the review expressed a scientific opinion of the book and did not go beyond the kind […]
Legal
Variations on a Theme of Bankruptcy: Borders, REDGroup, Nebraska Book and More
A hearing has been scheduled for March 15 on Borders‘ request that the judge overseeing bankruptcy proceedings take more time to decide what the company should do about outstanding lease agreements. Debtors are typically allowed 120 days under the bankruptcy code, but can ask for a 90-day extension for a total of 210 days. Borders, however, has asked to have until January 12, 2012 to deal with leases. Freep REDGroup Retail will close 38 of its 260 bookstores in Australia and New Zealand as part of its recently filed bankruptcy agreement. Of those stores, 37 were Angus & Robertson shops […]
Announcements: BN Settles Spring Design Lawsuit; McGraw-Hill Buys Bookette; Quarto Buys Cool Springs Press; and More
Barnes & Noble has settled with Spring Design over the 2009 lawsuit on whether the Nook’s design breached patent agreements for the now discontinued Alex Reader. Under terms of the agreement, Spring is granting Barnes & Noble a non-exclusive license for all of its patents and patent applications. Other terms of the settlement were not disclosed.Release McGraw-Hill has bought Bookette Software Co., a privately held provider of automated scoring for tests, including written exams.Terms of the deal were not disclosed.Release AbeBooks’ European division will acquire ZVAB.com, a leading online marketplace of German rare antiquarian books, from Mediantis AG. The acquisition […]
Pearson Freezes Libyan Government’s Minority Stake
In its earnings call yesterday Pearson admitted it was “uncomfortable” with the Libyan Investment Authority being its fifth-largest shareholder. Today the company announced it will freeze the LIA’s stake, valued at 3 percent last June but now at approximately 3.27 percent, or 26,572,179 shares. Pearson states that, per legal advice, “under The Libya (Financial Sanctions) Order 2011 (SI 2011 No. 548), Pearson considers that the ordinary shares in the company which are held by or on behalf of the LIA are subject to the Order and are therefore effectively frozen.” They have since informed the LIA and its nominees that […]
Records Show Fox News Head Roger Ailes Asked Judith Regan To Lie to Investigators
The memory of Judith Regan’s inauspicious 2006 exit from HarperCollins – as well as the breach of contract lawsuit against News Corporation she settled for $10.7 million – had long faded into the background. But a New York Times front page story this morning brings those events to the forefront thanks to the apparent solution to one of the more explosive allegations Regan made at the time: that a prominent News Corp executive urged her to lie to investigators about her former lover Bernard Kerik, then a candidate to run the Department of Homeland Security and now in jail for […]
Briefs: Author Sues Former Agent Over Bacon Cookbook; Spring Design Phasing Out Alex E-Reader And More
Brooklyn author Lisa Skye is suing her former agent, Jayne Rockmill, for puportedly stealing the idea that became the cookbook “I Love Bacon”, published by Andrews McMeel in 2009. According to the lawsuit, filed in Brooklyn Supreme Court, Skye said she and Rockmill jointly put together a proposal for the book after meeting at a launch party in 2007 for an earlier, self-published cookbook. Skye claims she fired Rockmill in early 2009 after she “became disenchanted with Rockmill’s aggressive style”, and was “stunned” to find a copy of the book with Rockmill’s name on it in a San Francisco bookstore […]