On Thursday, Amazon’s stock hit a new all-time high, closing above $800 a share for the first time. In the broader market sell-off early this year Amazon had traded as low as about $500 a share. For the year-to-date the stock is up about 19 percent, though the biggest movement was in 2015, when shares more than doubled as the fast-growing AWS cloud services division produced significant earnings. A number of analysts have upgraded Amazon’s stock again recently, expecting it to keep rising to between $950 and $1000 a share. With this year’s again, Amazon currently has the fourth-largest market capitalization […]
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Hastings Entertainment Files for Bankruptcy
Entertainment retailer Hastings Entertainment filed for bankruptcy protection in a Delaware court on Monday, blaming pretty much everything, from the growth of online shopping to “a decline in the market for physical media properties like music, movies, books, games and media rentals.” There is no buyer lined up for now, and the company says it only has enough cash to operate through mid-July, and will have to liquidate if a buyer is not found within 30 days. The unsecured creditors who are owed about $59 million trade payables are facing grim prospects, since they stand behind $80 million in secured […]
Briefs: National Book Foundation’s New Board Members; Denver’s New Literary Nonprofit; and More
William Morris Endeavor’s Jennifer Rudolph Walsh and former real estate developer (now board chair of Greater NY and board president at the Dalton school) Cheryl Cohen Effron have joined the board of the National Book Foundation. Owner of Corvus/Imprint Group Derek Lawrence, co-publisher of Unbridled Books Fred Ramey, and Conundrum Press and Samizdat Creative Caleb Seeling have formed a nonprofit in Denver, Colophon Center, “to celebrate Colorado’s literary legacies and encourage the growth of professional book publishing throughout the West.” The center intends to provide a physical space for events, classes and seminars; co-working space for publishing companies and professionals; a home for libraries of […]
Sales Fall 11 Percent At HarperCollins
News Corporation reported fiscal third quarter earnings after the close of the market on Thursday, with sales falling $44 million at HarperCollins, down 11 percent to $358 million for the period. The impact on EBITDA was sharper, at $36 million, down $20 million from a year ago. The company blamed “lower revenues from American Sniper by Chris Kyle and the Divergent series by Veronica Roth (… combined, those two franchises accounted for the majority of the year-over-year revenue shortfall …), lower e-book sales and negative foreign currency fluctuations,” though they did implement some “cost savings initiatives.” That negative sales trend has been […]
Briefs
Shambhala Publications will acquire Berkeley-based Rodmell Press, an independent publisher of books on yoga, Buddhism, Taoism, and aikido founded in 1988 by Linda Cogozzo and Donald Moyer, who plan to retire. As part of the acquisition, Rodmell titles will move distribution from PGW to Penguin Random House under the Shambhala logo beginning August 1. In the announcement, Shambhala president Nikko Odiseos expressed his admiration and appreciation for “the care with which each Rodmell book was chosen, and their obvious commitment to genuine, authentic teachings that help readers live better lives physically, emotionally, and spiritually.” Rodmell Press was represented by Susan […]
Google Play Gains Again, Even As Earnings Are Below Analysts’ Estimates; Apple China iBooks Shutdown Confirmed
The headline from Thursday afternoon’s earnings release from Alphabet/Google was that earnings came in below analysts’ expectations, with first quarter sales of $20.3 billion up 17 percent. In the segment we follow, the glamorous “Other revenue” that incorporates the Google Play store, sales of $2.1 billion were up 24 percent (though 1 percent below the previous, holiday quarter). In the investor conference call, the company said, “Year-over-year performance was driven by Play as well as continued strong growth in cloud and apps and a nice contribution from hardware.” Apple‘s earnings report was postponed until next week. In the meantime, the […]