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Following Friday morning’s filing of the Department of Justice’s sweeping requests in proposing penalties on Apple that would affect both the iBookstore as well as the entire digital content business, and put the company under extensive 10-year monitoring, Apple filed their reply on Friday afternoon with equal vigor: “Plaintiffs’ proposed injunction is a draconian and punitive intrusion into Apple’s business, wildly out of proportion to any adjudicated wrongdoing or potential harm.” The follow by calling the proposal “a sweeping and unprecedented injunction as a tool to empower the Government to regulate Apple’s businesses and potentially affect Apple’s business relationships with thousands […]

Scholastic reported results for the third quarter ending February 28 and as with the second quarter, overall sales fell 18.5 percent to $380.5 million, and profits declined further. The company reported a net loss of $20.1 million (or 63 cents a share) as compared to a loss of $10.3 million (or 32 cents a share) a year ago, largely because of “significantly lower sales” of the Hunger Games trilogy. Those sales continued to decline even faster than Scholastic was expecting. Scholastic also blamed the overall revenue and profit declines on “a planned increase in investments in digital initiatives” and pointed […]

A day after the Supreme Court overturned a lower court decision and sided with the defendant in John Wiley’s case against Supap Kirtsaeng, saying first sale doctrine does apply to overseas sales, the news has begun to sunk in, and reactions range from praise to criticism. Wiley ceo Stephen Smith expressed disappointment in the Supreme Court ruling against the company, calling it “a loss for the U.S. economy, and students and authors in the U.S. and around the world.” In its statement about the Kirtsaeng decision, the AAP also said it was disappointed the ruling “ignores broader issues critical to America’s […]

News Corp.’s February second quarter earnings report gave no numbers on the performance of HarperCollins–but an amended proxy statement outlining more details on the planned publishing division spinoff (aka New News Corp) provided real financial data on the book publisher’s fiscal 2013 so far. For the second quarter, Harper sales were $377 million, up 25 percent from $301 million a year ago, with EBITDA of $51 million, up 24 percent from $41 million the previous year. In the original filing, posted on December 20, Harper reported first quarter sales of $352 million and EBITDA of $40 million. For both quarters,  the […]