BBC Worldwide write down nearly £34 million (or $54 million) on the value of Lonely Planet, after paying £42 million earlier this year for the remaining 25 percent of the company outside of its control. (The BBC bought a 75 percent stake in 2007 for £89 million.) “The strength of the Australian dollar in recent years has led to challenging sales conditions for the Lonely Planet business,” said the company in a statement. “This has been compounded by declines since 2008 in key travel guide markets suffering from the impact of the global financial crisis.” The rise in the Australian […]
People: Rowling on New Projects; Harris Closing Book on Sookie Stackhouse; and More
JK Rowling said in several interviews to coincide with Friday’s opening of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part II film that she has written “quite a lot” of new material and has plans to publish it. (Previously she said she was working simultaneously on a political fairytale for children and a novel for adults.) “I think I always felt I didn’t want to publish again until the last film was out because Potter has been such a huge thing in my life. I’ve been writing hard ever since I finished writing Hallows, so I’ve got a lot of stuff […]
Amazon Agitates for Voter Referendum to Overturn California Tax Law
Amazon’s next move in the California sales tax battle is to support an effort to revoke the new law that makes online retailers with affiliates or subsidiaries subject to sales tax through a voter referendum. In the first phase, they will need over half a million signatures from voters by the end of September to get on the ballot. But it’s not clear that overturning the new requirements would hold much appeal for individual voters beyond the 25,000 or so revoked affiliates in the state, since earlier California law requires individuals to pay sales for their online purchases, whether or […]
Landlords Ask Judge to Slow Final Decisions on Borders
You can be forgiven for finding a measure of comedy in each hurry and up wait stage of Borders’ bankruptcy proceedings. Just a few weeks ago Borders was lamenting that their inability to negotiate deadline extensions from landlords was going to force the early closure of some of their “profitable” stores. Now we’ve gone full circle, with multiple landlords complaining about Borders’ rush to finalize an auction of the company, starting with the stalking horse bid from Najafi, or liquidate almost as quickly. The new slow of motions was not unexpected–yesterday was the stipulated deadline for landlords to object, and […]
Krakauer’s Attention-Getting eBook Now In Print
Most major publishers continue to say that as a matter of policy they will not buy books for print-only publication, but as a practical matter, licensing paperback rights to a successful ebook remains in play. In the latest instance, Knopf Doubleday’s Anchor line has licensed trade paperback rights to longtime house author John Krakauer’s 96-page THREE CUPS OF DECEIT following ebook-only publication by Byliner.com in April as a Kindle Singles ebook. Vintage Anchor editorial director LuAnn Walther–who has been Krakauer’s longtime paperback editor at the house, alongside his hardcover editor Bill Thomas–made the deal directly with the author, according to […]
Bloomsbury Buys Continuum for $32 Million, Cites “Soft Market” in Interim Statement
Bloomsbury announced that it has bought academic publisher Continuum from Nova/Paul Investments Capital and management shareholders for approximately £20.1 million (or $32 million) in cash. In a statement the company’s board said it “has been looking for a transformational acquisition to act as the cornerstone of its Academic & Professional division.” Continuum marks the sixth academic publisher Bloomsbury has bought over the past five years, and for the first time it provides a New York-based academic publishing office, with its own editorial and marketing team. Continuum forecasts EBITA of £0.6 million for the year ending June 30 on sales of […]