Among the many things Barnes & Noble and investor Ron Burkle have been fighting over is the company’s assessment of how many shares are controlled by the Riggio family and company directors, management and other executive officers.” On February 17 the company told Burkle that insiders controlled “approximately 31 percent” of shares. But in their quarterly SEC 10-Q filed today, they say Len and Steve Riggio alone are “beneficial owners of an aggregate of approximately 32.4% of the company’s outstanding capital stock as of January 31.” (Online data indicates that other company officials and directors hold approximately 1.5 percent of […]
Mantel and Holmes Top NBCC Winners, and More Awards News
The National Book Critics Circle Awards went to: Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel (Fiction)The Age of Wonder, by Richard Holmes (General Nonfiction)Cheever: A Life, by Blake Bailey (Biography) [all of the above correspond to directly to our compilation Best of the Best of 2009 list] Somewhere Towards the End, by Diana Athill (Autobiography) Versed, by Rae Armantrout (Poetry)Notes from No Man’s Land, Eula Biss (Criticism) In other awards news, the NY Public Library named the finalists for their annual Young Lions Award for a fiction writer 35 or under: Jedediah Berry, The Manual of Detection Katie Kitamura, The LongshotPhilipp Meyer, […]
Comp Sales Down 6 Percent at BAMM
Fourth quarter sales at Books-A-Million fell 6 percent on a same-store basis and 4.6 percent overall at $157 million, but net income of $11.9 million was up more than 6 percent. For the full year sales of $509 million were down 1.3 percent, declining 3.8 on a same-store basis, and net income rose to $13.8 million. The board authorized another stock repurchasing program of up $5 million.
Bloomberg Press to Become Imprint of Wiley
Bloomberg Press, reported last November as slated for closure on an unspecified schedule while the company explored all options for what to do with the line, will become an imprint of Wiley. Wiley says they will work with Bloomberg to “extend the Bloomberg and BusinessWeek brands to long-form content in books and other formats” and they plan to “publish the content using all media platforms including print, e-books and digital.” Wiley president of professional and trade publishing Steve Kippur says, “This is a powerful alliance that leverages Wiley’s vast experience in publishing business and finance books. The relationship takes advantage […]
Wiley Rises In All Segments
Wiley reported third quarter sales of $427 million this morning, a 14 percent increase driven in large part by currency gains (up 5 percent excluding foreign exchange). Operating income of $68.3 million was up eight percent, while adjusted net income of 71 cents a share was up 25 percent. Though the results are strong, analysts were anticipating earnings of 74 cents a share. The professional/trade division grew 10 percent at $107 million for the quarter, up 7 percent on a currency neutral basis. The company says “sales growth was strong in all regions, especially the U.S., where the holiday season […]
50 Million Meyer Books Drive Lagardere Publishing's Profits
Having already reported sales for 2009, Lagardere just reported their profits as well as part of their more formal fiscal report. The publishing division recorded of recurring EBIT of 301 million euros (on sales of 2.273 million euros), up 24 percent from last year. “The majority of the year-on-year increase of 58 million euros came from the United States, boosted by the success of the Stephenie Meyer saga,” for which they sold approximately 50 million copies in 2009 (after selling 35 million copies in 2008). In the US alone, they sold 33.6 million Meyer books in 2009. They also announced […]