After receiving a buyout offer from majority shareholders Trilogy Retail Holdings and Trilogy Investments in February, the board of Indigo Books & Music unanimously agreed to the sale at a slightly increased price, the company reports. Trilogy currently owns approximately 60.6 percent of shares, and will acquire the remaining at $2.50 (CA) in cash per share. At the beginning of February, Trilogy had offered $2.25 a share. The price gives Indigo an equity value of about $70 million. “The cash premium transaction will provide Minority Shareholders with immediate and certain value that is expected to be higher than that realizable […]
Imprints: Summit Books Australia
After relaunching the imprint in the US at the beginning of the year, Simon & Schuster will introduce Summit Books in Australia and New Zealand. Jane Palfreyman will join as publishing director or May 6, reporting to Simon & Schuster Australia managing director Dan Ruffino. Palfreyman was previously at Allen & Unwin. In a release, Ruffino said, “She is arguably one of Australia’s most successful and influential publishers and I’m looking forward to Jane’s significant contribution to Simon & Schuster Australia’s growth plans over the coming years.”
Spotify Will Raise Prices to Help Pay for Those Free Audiobook Hours
Spotify plans to raise prices later this year in the US to help cover the cost of the 15 hours of audiobooks per month that they added last year, Bloomberg reports. They also report that Spotify will add a new basic tier with no audiobook hours for $10.99 a month. (That’s the current price for the premium plan that does include audiobooks.) Bloomberg says Spotify will raise prices $1 a month for individual plans and $2 a month for family/multi-user plans in five markets by the end of April, including the UK, Australia, and Pakistan.
Obituary: John Barth
John Barth, 93, author of nearly 20 novels and books of fiction including The Sot-Weed Factor, died on April 2 at a hospice facility in Bonita Springs, FL.
Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick
PEN/Faulkner Award For Fiction
What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez by Claire Jiménez won the Pen/Faulkner Award for Fiction.