News Briefs
by Staff -- Publishers Weekly, 7/30/2007
AMS Says B&T Owes $6 Mil
AMS has filed a motion asking the judge who’s overseeing the company’s bankruptcy to force Baker & Taylor to pay AMS $6.2 million that AMS alleges B&T wrongly withheld when it made its final payment to acquire the majority of the bankrupt distributor’s assets. AMS said B&T’s decision to withhold part of the final installment was based on the wholesaler’s “unfounded and patently erroneous interpretations” of the Asset Purchase Agreement. Questions over returns, deductions and co-op payments were among the reasons cited by B&T for limiting its last payment.
Big Gains for Amazon
Media segment sales in Amazon’s North American operations jumped 26% in the second quarter, to $923 million. Revenue does not include sales from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which will be reflected in third-quarter results, although the e-tailer credited interest in placing preorders with helping to bring additional visitors to its site in the period. Despite the increase, media’s percentage of Amazon’s total revenue declined in the quarter, while revenue in the e-tailer’s electronic and general merchandise segment soared 66%. For the entire company, revenue rose 35%, to $2.89 billion.
Results Up at MHE
Second-quarter revenue at McGraw-Hill Education rose 5.8%, to $647.3 million, and operating income increased 18.7%, to $80.4 million. MHE’s higher education, professional and international segment led the gain with a 10.3% sales increase, to $244.0 million. Revenue in the school group increased 3.3%, to $403.3 million.
First-Half Earnings Up at Reed
Total revenue at Reed Elsevier was flat for the first six months of 2007, at £2.23 billion ($4.42 billion), while operating income was up 6%, to £412 ($816 million). Excluding currency fluctuations, revenue was ahead 6%. Figures do not include Harcourt Education, which Reed is in the process of selling in separate transactions to Pearson and Houghton Mifflin Riverdeep. Revenue at Harcourt was off 17% in the six-month period, to £322 million, and the company had an operating loss of £12 million, compared to profits of £10 million in the first half of 2006.
Maillet Named Timber Publisher
Neal Maillet has been named publisher of the Portland, Ore., Timber Press, which was acquired by Workman in 2006. Maillet, who was executive editor at the gardening publisher from 1993 to 2004, was most recently an acquisitions editor at John Wiley & Sons’ imprint Jossey-Bass Publishers.
Clarification
In Sara Nelson’s July 23 editorial, we incorrectly suggested that Dan Farley of Harcourt and Janet Silver of Houghton Mifflin held parallel jobs. Farley is in fact president and CEO of all of Harcourt trade. Silver is publisher of only Houghton Mifflin’s adult trade. The position of president of trade for Houghton Mifflin, which was held by Terri Kelly, is currently unoccupied.
