As the Wall Street Journal first reported yesterday, Education Media and Publishing ceo Barry O’Callaghan says “we concluded that the offers we’ve received were less than what the business was worth in terms of long-term value and long-term profitability” so they are calling off a sale of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. O’Callaghan says there were three bidders for the trade publisher, with estimated annual sales of $150 million to $200 million.WSJ Separately, Houghton Mifflin ceo Tony Lucki tells the Boston Globe the unit comprises about 5 percent of Houghton’s profits, and less than 10 percent of sales. He insists “the offers). […]
Critics Love Bolano's 2666; Takes NBCC
This win was an easy prediction as critics lined up to love Roberto Bolano’s 2666 even before it was published, as was Dexter Filkins’ widely-loved THE FOREVER WAR (for general nonfiction). Other winners: AutobiographyAriel Sabar, My Father’s Paradise BiographyPatrick French, The World Is What It Is: The Authorized Biography of V.S. Naipaul Criticism Seth Lerer, Children’s Literature: A Reader’s History from Aesop to Harry Potter PoetryAugust Kleinzahler, Sleeping It Off in Rapid City and Juan Felipe Herrera, Half the World in Light: New and Selected Poems(the first time in 35 years that two books have shared a prize)AP
Borders to Ask for Reverse Stock Split
At their annual meeting on May 21, Borders will seek shareholder approval for a reverse stock split to help bring the company into compliance with New York Stock Exchange listing rules. The split still might not happen, though, since the company also needs a higher market capitalization to meet the Exchange’s rules.Release
ABA "Action Plan" for Digital Opportunities
The ABA’s Len Vlahos posted a presentation to the ABA board about how “a meaningful digital content solution needs to be our top priority and main focus for the immediate future.” For now, however, the immediate recommendations calls for “further study” through a task force; continuing dialogue with Ingram, Symtio and other technology partners; and increased digital focus in the ABA’s educational programs.Report Bookseller Rich Rennicks had an interesting blog post on the topic of how to deal with ebooks in indie stores recently that was enriched by about 40 comments. Among the laments from booksellers there is that the […]
More Numbers from Lagardere
Yesterday Lagardere release their more detailed annual report, which also includes profits for fiscal 2008 (they released basic sales figures of 2.159 billion euros earlier, as we previously reported). They company says EBIT for 2008 was 236 million euros, up 3.3 percent from a year ago, with operating margins up slightly to 11.4 percent. The US comprised 22 percent of sales in 2008, up from 18 percent a year ago, making it larger than Hachette UK for the first time, which saw its share of sales drop from 24 percent a year ago to 18 percent in 2008. On that […]
Barnett Skeptical that Publishing Alternatives Would Entice His Clients
A number of the approximately 75 registered AAP publishers had left the organization’s annual meeting yesterday due to the Clinton-delayed program before the final event, a lunchtime q&A between Twelve publisher Jon Karp and attorney Bob Barnett (who joked that it was “defamatory” when Pat Schroeder introduced him as an agent.) Asked “what makes for a good political book,” Barnett recommended “the more personal and the less policy, the better.” He agreed with the notion that in political books, “sadly, the far right and the far left are the ones that sell. Particularly in this economy…the center and the sensible […]