Borders has confirmed the obvious: “management is no longer contemplating a transaction” to sell the entire company.” But it is “in discussions with Pershing Square regarding an alternative financing transaction,” and still has the right to sell the Paperchase chain to Pershing Square for $65 million. Same-store sales for the third quarter suffered more at Borders than at the other big chains, falling 12.8 percent at their superstores, which had $548.4 million sales, with Waldenbooks comps falling less, by 7.7 percent, for sales of $91.5 million in total. Their web site sales were $11.9 million, “which is below management expectations […]
Woolworth's Halts Trading
In the UK, trading in Woolworths’ shares was suspended this morning at the company’s request, as they are on the verge of bankruptcy and deep in negotiations for a rescue. They said in a statement that they are in talks to sell the BBC Woolworths’ 40 percent share of their 2entertain joint venture, which produces and distributes BBC shows on DVD. There are reports of agreement for a sale of that unit for 100 million pounds, but the Times says “the sale of the DVD business hinges on talks over the rest of the business.” The chain is still in […]
One Kindle Stat: 10k NYT Readers
The Nieman Foundation comments on an internal NYT memo that tells staffer at the newspaper “we now have more than 10,000 paid subscribers to The Times on Kindle as well as more than 2,000 subscribers to the various NYTimes blogs available via the device.” Those totals were apparently boosted by an election-time “promotion” that provided free access to Kindle owners for a few days, with 8,500 sample copies downloaded. They say they are considering a similar promotion around inauguration time.Nieman blog
Briefly: Laura Bush Still Shopping; Coulter's GUILTY; Updike's Bad Sex; UK Sales Keep Falling; A New Standard for Digital Content
* First Lady Laura Bush has confirmed the previous confirmation that she is talking to publishers about a book deal. “I’ve been talking to some publishers, but nothing has happened yet — just a few visits.” * How will Ann Coulter fare in an Obama world? Her new book is GUILTY: Liberal “Victims” and their Assault on America, which “exposes and mocks, in graphic detail, the media’s love affair with all things Democrat and Obama” according to the hyping on the Drudge Report. * The UK sales decline continues, as year-on-year, unit sales were down 5.1 percent in the past […]
No New Books. What's Houghton Thinking?
It was less than a month ago that Houghton Mifflin Harcourt held an “open house” at their New York offices to celebrate the first combined list of the once separate trade lines, but now that welcome is firmly closed as the trade and reference division has “temporarily stopped acquiring manuscripts,” according to vp of communications Josef Blumenfeld. As first reported by PW and followed by the WSJ and NYT, Blumenfeld struggled for metaphors to explain the policy: “We have a temporary freeze on. We are working on what we already have.” Or rather, “there is a freeze-lite” he said. “There […]
Kindle Rumor: 2.0 in Q1
Amazon said enough times “no new Kindle in 2008” that TechCrunch is now convinced by its sources that the new version of their e-book reader is “tentatively scheduled to go on sale in ‘early next quarter.'” They confirm their belief that the prototype pictures circulated in October online “are real” and that a larger student-targeted Kindle reader is on track for the first half of 2009. (Would you release a product for students towards the end of the semester?) But they also “hear a bunch of new ebook products are about to hit the market, and some of them may […]