In the more than three months since Liberty Media stated its intention to buy a 70 percent stake in Barnes & Noble at 17 cents a share, further reports suggested that prospect had dimmed, or at least put on hold. Then on Wednesday morning a report by dealReporter – which has a hit-or-miss track record on such things – intimated that “constraints on financing had quieted deal talk” and that Liberty was leaning towards “a preferred share investment.” Per “two sources familiar with the situation and an industry banker following the situation,” the original deal wasn’t off the table, but […]
RR Donnelley To Acquire LibreDigital
RR Donnelley announced today that it has acquired digital content distribution and e-service provider LibreDigital for an undisclosed sum. President and ceo Thomas Quinlan said in a statement that buying LibreDigital will “extend RR Donnelley’s reach across the breadth of the supply chain.” This is the second company Donnelley has purchased this week, having also bought Sequence Personal, a provider of proprietary software that enables readers to select relevant content to be digitally produced as specialized publications. Earlier this summer Donnelley also acquired online writer services company Helium and Journalism Online. “With this acquisition we uniquely position RR Donnelley to […]
Self-Help Bestseller Tim Ferriss Sells New Book To Kirshbaum’s Amazon Imprint
Some days the biggest news happens in the deals section, and today is no exception with Amazon’s announcement that the still-untitled imprint headed by Larry Kirshbaum made its first buy, acquiring Timothy Ferriss’ latest self-help opus, THE FOUR-HOUR CHEF, for publication next year. (Our deals database has more information on the terms.) Previously Ferriss was published by Crown, and both of his earlier books, THE FOUR-HOUR WORKWEEK and THE FOUR-HOUR BODY, have been on the NYT bestseller lists for 84 and 33 weeks, respectively. Amazon’s release ceded most of the “future of publishing” rhetoric to Ferriss, who was quoted as […]
People, Etc.
At Ten Speed Press, Sara Golski has been promoted to editor and Emily Timberlake has been promoted to associate editor, both reporting to Julie Bennett. The Waxman Agency’s Holly Root is relocating to Los Angeles. She will open a west coast office for the agency, and will continue to develop her client list as well as expand the agency’s network of TV and film contacts. A Mississippi court judge has thrown out a lawsuit by Ablene Cooper alleging that Kathryn Stockett based a key character in her bestselling novel THE HELP on her. Cooper, the African-American maid for one of […]
Forbes’ Highest Paid Authors, 2011 Edition
Their methodology may not track with actual earnings figures (though we understand there have been some changes to make the tally more accurate as compared to previous years) Forbes has released their new list of guesses at how much the most successful authors made over the 12 months ending June 1: James Patterson ($84 million) Danielle Steel ($35 million) Stephen King ($28 million) Janet Evanovich ($22 million) Stephenie Meyer ($21 million) Rick Riordan ($21 million) Dean Koontz ($19 million) John Grisham ($18 million) Jeff Kinney ($17 million) Nicholas Sparks ($16 million) Forbes
Class Action Lawsuits Against Apple and Agency Publishers Proliferate
When the Seattle law firm Hagens Berman filed suit against Apple and publishers Hachette, Macmillan, HarperCollins, Penguin, and Simon & Schuster last week, they specifically sought media coverage–and got it. Without press releases, what was missed was that four additional suits, all seeking to be part of a larger class action, were filed in federal courts in New York and California between August 10 and August 12. Across the various suits, Random House, Amazon and Barnes & Noble all get added to the legal feasting as well. As you may surmise, each of these suits works off the same logic […]