Bertelsmann Seen As Increasingly Likely to Go Public Minority Bertelsmann shareholder Group Bruxelles Lambert has always held the cards in whether or not the private Germany company gets pushed into public equity markets and a Reuters piece cites a source that says the Belgian financiers are likely to play their hand next year. (This was already part of one of the big items we were preparing for our year-end predictions about 2006 as the year of change in ownership.) Reuters adds, “The listing would be one of the largest media listings in the world and has been the subject of […]

Personnel News ICM agent Jud Laghi will join Larry Kirshbaum’s start-up agency LJK Literary Management next week, as the group moves into new offices. Laghi’s projects include this year’s bestselling WHY DO MEN HAVE NIPPLES? In Canada, Penguin has promoted Helen Reeves to commissioning editor, acquiring humor, fiction, YA fiction, entertainment, thrillers, genre fiction and children’s books. Canada Reads Begins Again As the NEA pulls together its Big Read program, Canada is underway with their fifth annual Canada Reads initiative. The shortlist of candidates, to be debated on CBC radio next April until all but one title is voted off […]

Trade Rises At Wiley Domestic professional/trade revenue rose seven percent at Wiley to $95 million in their fiscal second quarter, termed a “solid” period in the company’s release this morning. Technology and business books “performed especially well.” Licensing of rights is also cited as a contributing factor from this segment during the quarter, including a deal with MSN.com’s travel pages with Frommer’s. Net income of $27 million, up only slightly from last year, “was adversely affected by increased interest expense and a higher effective tax rate.” Overall sales for the quarter of $263 million were up six percent from a […]

Commission Delays (And Effectively Ends) HMV Takeover of Ottakar’s A groundswell of opposition to the proposed takeover of UK bookselling chain Ottakar’s by larger competitor HMV (which own’s Waterstone’s) has been significantly delayed if not quashed outright. After extended deliberations, the UK’s OFT has referred the merger to the Competition Commission for review — and a decision won’t be rendered until late May. As a result, the current takeover offer automatically lapses — which led to a plunge in Ottakar’s stock in London markets, knocking the price down 17 percent by mid-afternoon in London. OFT chief executive John Fingleton said: […]

Good to Self-Publish Author of long-running business bestseller GOOD TO GREAT Jim Collins has self-published a 35-page supplement, GOOD TO GREAT AND THE SOCIAL SECTORS. Listed at $11.95 and published last month, the monograph is sold through online booksellers (with the help of a really poor resolution cover.) Newsweek says “he self-published the new booklet partly so no one would confuse it with his next real book.” They add, “In the new booklet, Collins explains how nonprofits can adapt his principles. Drawing on examples such as the Girl Scouts and the Cleveland Orchestra, he explains tactics to cajole rather than […]

Monday, November 28 FICTION Debut LA ICM talent agent Margaret Marr’s HOLLYWOOD GIRLS CLUB, the story of the intertwined adventures of four women in the stiletto-wearing, black-card carrying upper echelons of the entertainment industry, “Entourage for women meets Candace Bushnell,” to Shana Drehs at Crown, in a significant deal, for two books, by Andrea Barzvi at ICM (NA). University of Virginia Poe/Faulkner fellow and NYT journalist Taylor Antrim’s THE HEADMASTER RITUAL, focusing on the political machinations inside a prestigious prep school as experienced by a first-year history teacher, to Webster Younce at Houghton Mifflin, in a pre-empt, by Joe Veltre […]