Hedge fund Jana Partners, which built a 5.2 percent stake in McGraw-Hill along with the Ontario Teachers Pension Fund, disclosed earlier this month, indicated in an SEC filing on Monday exactly how it would like McGraw-Hill to function going forward. (Their combined holdings in the company also rose to 5.6 percent, according to the new filing.) Specifically, as outlined in a Powerpoint presentation given to McGraw-Hill’s board of directors earlier in the day, Jana wants the company to break itself up into four separate companies: Education, Information & Media, and two entities for S&P and its indices. “While the announcements […]
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W. Paul Young Signs With Hachette For Next Book After Settling ‘The Shack’ Lawsuit
Hachette Book Group has signed William Paul Young for an untitled follow up to his multi-million selling novel THE SHACK, for which the publisher’s Faith Words imprint handled marketing, manufacturing, sales and distribution since mid-2008 after the original edition from Windblown Media sold over a million copies. The news comes shortly after Young reached a final settlement agreement with Windblown Media founders Wayne Jacobsen and Brad Cummings on undisclosed terms on August 12, a deal that had been in the works for some time. (Young had alleged accounting improprieties, and Jacobsen and Cummings counter-sued, seeking joint copyright in the book.) […]
S&S Will Handle Print Sales & Distribution For John Locke
Self-published thriller writer John Locke, who sold more than a million copies of his Donovan Creed novels primarily via Amazon (helped in part by the 99 cent ebook price of each series title) has found a large publisher to back him on the print side. Starting in February 2012, Simon & Schuster will handle sales and distribution for the print editions of Locke’s books under the banner of John Locke Books. The deal will allow Locke’s novels – the eight books already released, as well as newer titles to come — to be more widely available in brick-and-mortar stores (including […]
Imprints: Night Shade Shuts Down Pugilist Press; Freehand Books Freezes Acquisitions
Night Shade Books has shut down its dark literary fiction imprint Pugilist Press, set to launch sometime this year, and the imprint’s editor-in-chief Juliet Ulman has left the company. Night Shade publisher Jason Williams said in an email that he shut the imprint down in order to concentrate on the company’s core business. “We started working on Pugilist at the beginning of 2010, when things were much more stable than they are now. In light of the current highly unpredictable and unstable publishing environment, launching a new imprint seems like poor reasoning. Especially a literary imprint, which is probably the […]
Vlahos Joins BISG As Executive Director on September 12
Len Vlahos will join the Book Industry Study Group as executive director, taking the position vacated earlier this year by Scott Lubeck. Vlahos has been coo of the American Booksellers Association since 2009, and has spent nearly 20 years with the organization. His last day with ABA is September 2, and he joins BSG on September 12. “All of us at ABA extend warmest congratulations to Len on his appointment as BISG’s new executive director,” said ABA CEO Oren Teicher in a statement. “To say the least, we will miss him a great deal, but we are delighted that the […]
McGraw-Hill Exploring Separation of Education Business
For years investors have disapproved of McGraw-Hill’s portfolio, which folds the S&P Credit Ratings Agency, Education, and other unrelated businesses under the same umbrella. Recent share pickups by activist hedge fund Jana Partners in tandem with the Ontario Teachers Pension Fund heightened calls for the company to break up, sell, or spin off some of its divisions – especially the education side, the largest group within the company. The WSJ first reported, with other outlets following with their own unnamed sources or “people briefed on the matter” that McGraw-Hill retained investment bank Evercore Partners to advise the company on a […]