PGW Judgment Delayed 'til Thursday

by Judith Rosen, PW Daily -- Publishers Weekly, 2/12/2007

Today's 11 o'clock hearing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware on the sale of Publishers Group West ended in a postponement until later this week. Judge Christopher Santochi clarified for publishers that they are entitled to sign agreements with both National Book Network and Perseus. He also granted NBN two more days to produce a definitive agreement.

If NBN does not get the needed documentation to the judge by Wednesday, February 14,at 5 p.m., the Perseus offer will be approved on Thursday morning. If it does, an auction will be held on Thursday morning, which will entail the debtors' and creditors' committees meeting with both Perseus and NBN. The judge will approve the sale later that day.

"We respect the process and we're just looking forward to moving forward as quickly as possible," Perseus CEO David Steinberger told PW Daily. "We've always said it's important for the PGW community to get a decision quickly."

For his part, NBN head Jed Lyons was pleased that the judge had given the company the needed time to complete their documentation. He noted that the judge said that "facially" NBN's offer appeared to be higher and better.

As things continue to shake out in the AMS bankruptcy, Independent Publishers Group may turn out to be the biggest winner by deciding not to bid for PGW. "First and foremost, the disruption it would cause for our staff and our clients might result in a slippage of service," wrote president Mark Suchomel in a note to IPG clients late last week. He added that both Perseus's and NBN's offers are "expensive and we think a bad investment for the purpose of growing so quickly." Instead, IPG has signed a few publishers that were with PGW or had been considering going with them.