AMS, Committee Back Perseus; NBN Ups Offer

by Jim Milliot, PW Daily -- Publishers Weekly, 2/16/2007

After a day-long auction yesterday, AMS lawyers and the unsecured creditors’ committee gave their support to Perseus’s offer to pay 70 cents of prebankruptcy claims to PGW clients. Perseus has signed contracts with publishers accounting for 85% of the PGW debt. Perseus CEO David Steinberger said he was “gratified” for the backing of the two parties and appreciated the support Perseus received from the publishers.

NBN’s Jed Lyons, however, continued to sweeten his deal, yesterday raising the payout to publishers to 100% of monies owed and dropping NBN’s $1.2 million claim against AMS, as well as another unsecured claim. NBN has agreements with 118 publishers, representing 42% of PGW clients, excluding Avalon, which is being acquired by Perseus.

The final decision on who gets the PGW publishers is expected to be handed down later today. A hearing is set for 11:30 a.m. that will include motions on approving procedures to allow B&T’s bid for AMS warehouse business to move forward as well as to determine the disposition of the PGW contracts.