Following Barnes & Noble’s fourth quarter loss and prediction of more losses in the year ahead driven by their investments in technology, investors unloaded on the company’s stock in morning trading. On very heavy volume, the booksellers’ shares were down as much as 17 percent in the first hour of trading, touching levels not reached since the depths of the 2008 market collapse, before rebounding noticeably, down about 10.5 percent as we post. (The market is down broadly, with the S&P 500 off about 2.5 percent, and Amazon is down almost 5 percent this morning.) Having likely anticipated the market’s […]
eDeals: Symtio Sold to Libre Digital; Overdrive Adds Disney and Partners with Internet Archive, As IA Invents Their Own Rules for Lending Older Titles As eBooks
Zondervan has sold the technology and infrastructure behind their Symtio business to LibreDigital (in which Zondervan parent HarperCollins is also an investor). The sale covers “the Symtio e-commerce technology, existing e-commerce contracts and applications, and key e-commerce staff,” but not Symtio’s retail card business, which the release says ” Zondervan is in negotiations to sell separately.” It’s a curious bifurcation, since Symtio has always promoted their “digital product cards” as the heart of the business that lets physical retailers sell and activate cards that allow the downloading of digital media. LibreDigital ceo Russell Reeder says in the announcement they will […]
eNews: Travel Chain to Sell Kindles; Kindle Android App; Bezos As Missionary; NYT Plans eBook Bestseller List
The 11-store airport chain HMSHost, which sells under the Simply Books and Authors Bookstores banners, has become the unlikely first travel retailer to sell Kindles.Release In other Kindle news, yesterday Amazon announced the release of a free reading app for the fast-growing Android platform.Release In an interview with Fortune, Jeff Bezos paints himself as a missionary. “We think of it [the Kindle platform] as a mission. I strongly believe that missionaries make better products. They care more. For a missionary, it’s not just about the business. There has to be a business, and the business has to make sense, but […]
People, Etc.
Penguin Australia marketing and publicity director Dan Ruffino is being promoted to group digital director for Penguin Group worldwide, starting September 1 based in New York. He will report to chairman and ceo John Makinson and “focus on digital publishing and new digital revenue opportunities; direct to consumer communication and business intelligence; and global partnerships.” Makinson comments: “He is a hugely talented marketing professional who has spent the last six years thinking about ways to make our content more enticing to the consumer. He has all the right qualifications and qualities for the job, but, above all, he has the […]
Nook Lifts BN Sales, While Adding to Losses, As Bookstore Comps Fall 3.1%
Barnes & Noble gave some sense of what Nook is worth to the company in reporting fourth quarter earnings (and forward guidance for fiscal 2011). BN.com sales–where Nook units and ebooks are both recorded–rose by about $44 million in the quarter, at $141 million overall up 51 percent from a year ago. And for 2011, the company expects BN.com sales to rise “approximately 75 percent to $1 billion.” So they expect to gain another $425 million in the year ahead from Nook device and ebook unit sales. (Note that for comparison purposes, their sales estimate “reflects the actual retail selling […]
Lunch Weekly for Monday, June 28
Deal Reports Just e-mail to deals@PublishersMarketplace if you aren’t using the online form linked below. Report a deal using the online form The Key As usual, the handy key to our Lunch deal categories. While all reports are always welcome, those that include a category will generally receive a higher listing when it comes time to put them all together. “nice deal” $1 – $49,000 “very nice deal” $50,000 – $99,000 “good deal” $100,000 – $250,000 “significant deal” $251,000 – $499,000 “major deal” $500,000 and up FICTION Debut Screenwriter of FANBOYS Ernie Cline’s READY PLAYER ONE, pitched as Charlie […]