Bloomberg Television interviewed KKR co-head of global private equity Pete Stavros and Simon & Schuster ceo Jonathan Karp recently. Asked how long KKR plans to own S&S before exiting, Stavros noted, “We’ve owned business for 20 years before. It takes as long as it takes….” Primarily, however, “Our base case would be this is five, six, seven years. We’ve got a bunch of things we want to accomplish. Maybe it becomes a great public company some day; we’ll see. We’re not in a hurry.” Stavros suggested a leaner supply chain is part of their strategy: “Foreacasting demand for a new […]
Judge Dismisses Parts of Author Suits Against OpenAI
Ninth Circuit District Court Judge Aracelli Martinez-Olguin in California dismissed four of the more technical counts brought by authors against OpenAI in multiple lawsuits. The decision follows other rulings in being skeptical that the output of generative AI—even if it is significantly similar to an original work—is a violation of the creator’s copyright. Notably, however, the foundational claim—that training OpenAI on a massive corpus of copyrighted works without permission violates copyright—was not challenged at this stage, and will proceed. Also notable is that Judge Martinez-Olguin did allow another important claim of the plaintiffs to go forward, which is the allegation […]
Bloomsbury Invests in Fantasy as Maas Drives Results
Bloomsbury released a brief trading update for the year ending February 29, further expecting sales to be “significantly ahead” of market expectations that were revised upwards in December to £291.4 million and profit before taxation and highlighted items of £37.2 million. The success is thanks to Sarah J. Maas’s HOUSE OF FLAME AND SHADOW, which hit number 1 in the US, UK, Australia, and elsewhere when it was published on January 30, as well as her 15-title backlist. As such, “Bloomsbury is investing further in fantasy writing on the newly launched Bloomsbury General list.” “I am overjoyed to report an […]
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Sally Kim to Lead Little, Brown
Sally Kim will join Little, Brown as president and publisher on March 4, leaving her current role as svp publisher at Putnam. Current Little, Brown publisher Bruce Nichols will leave his position on March 1. Hachette Book Group’s new ceo David Shelley says of Kim in the announcement, “She is a brilliant editor as well as a publisher – in common with many of her predecessors at Little, Brown – and I love her editorial taste in fiction and nonfiction, as well as her publishing flair. I believe that Sally will be a visionary leader for Little, Brown and will […]