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The Baker & Taylor Card Livening up today’s proceedings, AMS announced it has signed a letter of intent to sell “the majority of its assets, excluding PGW,” to Baker & Taylor — the company that current AMS ceo Gary Rautenstrauch ran until mid-2003. They note that “the letter of intent is subject to the negotiation of a definitive asset purchase agreement and the approval of the bankruptcy court.” The parties expect to request a bidding procedures hearing before the bankruptcy court on February 16, and would hope to close a deal by March 15. Richard Willis, who took over as […]

The Day in Delaware The PGW-AMS situation begins in confusion in court in Delaware today and may or may not achieve clarity by later in the day. The most closely-watched set of decisions before the judge involves the Perseus and NBN offers to acquire the distribution contracts of PGW publishers. (As Radio Free PGW points out, eight responses have been filed just to the Perseus sale motion.) But there are larger issues before the court as well, including the request to finalize the debtor-in-possession financing from Wells Fargo Foothilll (which the creditors committee, among others, has objected to), and various […]

Deal Reports Just e-mail to deals@PublishersMarketplace if you aren’t using the online form linked below. Report a deal using the online form The Key As usual, the handy key to our Lunch deal categories. While all reports are always welcome, those that include a category will generally receive a higher listing when it comes time to put them all together. “nice deal” $1 – $49,000 “very nice deal” $50,000 – $99,000 “good deal” $100,000 – $250,000 “significant deal” $251,000 – $499,000 “major deal” $500,000 and up FICTION Debut Sam Michel’s debut novel, BIG DOGS AND FLYBOYS, about an eighteen-year-old who […]

Bankruptcy Battle Brews With Monday’s bankruptcy court hearing looming, questions and statements about the options available to PGW clients continue to intensify. Responding to advice from Avalon, Grove/Atlantic and New World Library, Perseus CEO David Steinberger says they are revising the portion of their offer today that requires publishers to stay with the distributor for four years after their contract anniversary date today to “give publishers an ability to exit [the new distribution agreement] earlier by paying back some of the costs that we’ve incurred.” The revised clause will apply to all publishers who have already signed agreements with Perseus. […]

Bankruptcy 102 PGW client publishers and those who love them remain understandably confused by the flurry of letters, motions and contracts with respect to offers from Perseus and NBN. In a letter announcing the NBN offer, PGW told clients they could sign both the Perseus and NBN agreements: “As the Bankruptcy Court has not yet approved any deal, you are free to enter into an agreement with NBN, even if you have done so with the other potential purchaser. The intent of the process is that the bankruptcy court will approve a transaction and the agreements with the ‘winning’ purchaser […]

NBN Trumps Perseus Offer The options for PGW clients got more interesting with an offer yesterday from National Book Network (NBN) to acquire distribution contracts of PGW publishers, promising to pay a higher portion of pre-petition debts than Perseus and asking for a standard (and thus shorter) contract renewal. A letter from NBN head Jed Lyons says, “With financial support from a major financial institution, Drawbridge Long Dated Value Advisors, we have proposed to acquire PGW by assuming its publisher contracts.… You will be paid .85 on the dollar for your claim against the bankrupt estate. You will be asked […]