Borders Will Accelerate UK Growth As noted regularly in their quarterly reports, international sales are the big growth area for Borders. Even as the company pares back on new superstores in the US, expansion plans in the UK are getting more ambitious. The company announced deals for up to 12 new superstore locations across the UK; five are scheduled to open in the next year, with another seven in negotiation and/or following shortly thereafter. Managing Director Phil Downer tells PN that it’s possible some of the company’s Books etc locations will be converted to BordersExpress stores — following the experimental […]

Good Final Quarter, Good Year at Wiley Wiley reported record full fiscal year results, with sales up 8 percent to $923 million, “driven primarily by the strong second half performances of Professional/Trade in the U.S. and Scientific, Technical, and Medical globally.” In the fourth quarter, sales were up 14 percent from the year before, to $232 million. Professional/Trade increases were attributed mostly to, “Organic growth in key publishing categories,” as “Revenue rebounded solidly in the second half of the year, particularly in the business, architecture, culinary, education, and consumer programs.” CEO William Pesce says in a statement, “We anticipate revenue […]

Please Note No Lunch tomorrow, which is a travel day for me. We’ll be back to our regular schedule (and timing) on Thursday. AMS Still Not Ready to File Advanced Marketing Services announced after the close of the market yesterday that, despite recent changes to management, they still are not ready to file quarterly reports with the government. Once again, they will not file their 10-K for the quarter ending March 31, which means the company has missed four consecutive quarterly reports now. They still expect that the restatement of earnings will result in a reduction of about $10 million […]

Pension Liabilities Could Sink Permira Bid for Smith Former WH Smith chairman Martin Taylor, who oversees the company’s underfunded pension fund now, is insisting that equity firm Permira would need to replenish the fund immediately if their takeover bid goes through-which could stop the deal altogether. A London newspaper reports, “Those overseeing pension funds have a duty to ensure that nothing happens that threatens the security of the fund. If a company is taken over by a group carrying high debts, the trustees are within their rights to insist that any shortfall in the fund is made up straight away. […]

As promised/warned, a later-day Lunch for a quieter Friday. More New Jobs With another batch of brand-new job opportunities since yesterday, the Lunch Job Board continues to offer fresh possibilities every day. More than that, though, we bring employers the single-largest audience of book publishing people available online — by a margin of many thousands — and we do it at what is by far the lowest price. If you haven’t tried our Job Board since we relocated it to PublishersMarketplace earlier in the year, you’ll be surprised at how efficient and effective it is at reaching people within the […]

Schedule Note I’m not sure why, but our school has released my beloved children way too early in June. Thus I shall be replenishing post-BEA and filling the school/camp gap with a few days of family fun. Some Lunch will be served tomorrow, but not until late in the day. A hearty deal round-up will be provided on the usual schedule. Beyond that, at various points Monday through Wednesday you may or may not hear from me. Deal reports, job postings, and all our other site features-including headlines and links posted to the PM.com home page, will continue with vigor […]