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Market Watch: Industry Stocks: May Performances
With investors betting that John Malone's $17 per share bid for Barnes & Noble will go higher, B&N's stock price jumped 78.5% in May to a 52-week high of $19.62 at the end of the month. Some market analysts have speculated that a final bid could come in the $20 to $22 range. Largely thanks to B&N's gains, the Publishers Weekly Stock Index rose 3.0% in the month split between seven winners and six losers. Another big winner in May was Donnelley, which overcame a disappointing first-quarter report to post a 13.1% increase in its stock price helped by a $1 per share buyback program. The biggest May loser was Books-A-Million, which lost money in its first quarter and said it expected the second period to be another difficult quarter.
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E-Book Sales Up 159% in Quarter, Print Falls
After increasing at a 169% rate in the first two months of 2011, e-book sale rose at a relatively modest 145.7% clip in March, to $69 million, according to the 16 publishers who report figures to AAP's monthly sales estimates.
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Industry Stocks: April 2011 Performances
The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Publishers Weekly Stock Index rose by similar amounts in April, with the Dow ahead 4.8% and the PWSI up 4.3%. The stock prices of nine companies on the PWSI rose in the month while prices declined at four. Barnes & Noble’s stock price continued to be the most volatile in the publishing and bookselling industries.
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First-Quarter Scorecard: Week of 5/9/2011
The strong Canadian dollar lowered reported sales gains and turned what would have been an increase in operating income to a slight decline. Digital sales increased by C$7.1 million in North America, offsetting sales decline of print in retail and online channels. E-books accounted for 13.6% of worldwide sales, about C$15.6 million. Harlequin expects the remainder of the year to be stable.
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Borders By the Numbers: Week of 5/9/2011
$300.3 million: Loss from continuing operations, 2010
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Book Sales Lower at HarperCollins
HarperCollins had lower book sales in the third quarter ended March 31, according to parent company News Corp.'s 10-Q filing with the SEC. In a statement issued by HC, the company said e-book sales in the quarter accounted for 19% of sales in the U.S. and 11% worldwide.
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Simon & Schuster Results Up, Digital Doubles
With digital content generating 18% of total revenue in the first quarter of 2011, Simon & Schuster reported that profits more than doubled and sales rose 2% to $155 million.
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Digital Sales Offset Print Declines at Harlequin
First quarter sales at Harlequin rose 2.3%, to C$115.4 million, and operating profit declined from C$23 million in last year’s first period to C$22 million in the most recent quarter. Sales and earnings were both negatively impacted by the strong Canadian dollar and parent company Torstar noted that excluding the impact of foreign exchange Harlequin's sales increased by C$8 million and operating profit by C$1.9 million. Torstar said Harlequin had a solid start.
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Despite E-book Boom Lagardere Publishing Sales Fall
Sales at Lagardere Publishing fell approximately 10% in the first quarter to 390 million euros. The company attributed the decline to tough comparisons to last year’s first quarter in which the Twilight Saga titles were still experiencing strong sales, particularly in the U.S. Somewhat offsetting the decline of Twilight in Lagardere’s U.S. subsidiary, Hachette Book Group, was an 88% rise in e-book sales and e-book sales accounted for 22% of revenue at HBG in the quarter.
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Sales, Led by Digital, Jump at Amazon But Earnings Fall
Overall at Amazon, revenue rose 38%, to $9.86 billion, but net income fell 33%, to $201 million.
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Results Off at McGraw-Hill Education
With revenue in both its major operating groups falling, first-quarter sales at McGraw-Hill Education declined 4.6%, to $302.7 million, and the operating loss increased by 22.2%, to $75.5 million. In addition to lower revenue, parent company McGraw-Hill Cos. attributed the deeper loss to increased investments for digital infrastructure and product development.
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A Mix That Includes Fewer Books
One of the industry's biggest issues in 2011 is the loss of retail shelf space for print titles. The trend of book retailers devoting less space—and generating lower sales—from new books is seen in the recently released 10-k filings from Books-A-Million and Hastings Entertainment.
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Borders Bankruptcy Dents Courier Second Quarter
Printer and publisher Courier Corp. is one of the first publicly-traded companies to report a meaningful negative impact from the Borders' bankruptcy. In disclosing disappointing second quarter results for the period ended March 26, Courier said the bankruptcy contributed to a decline in its publishing group sales while also hurting results in the manufacturing group. In addition, Courier took a write-down of $750,000 to cover Borders' bad debt.
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Borders Bonus Plan Approved
In less than a half hour, this morning's Borders hearing ended with the court's approval of a modified plan for both the Key Employee Incentive Plan, or KEIP, for five senior managers and 10 additional managers, and the Key Employee Retention Plan, or KERP, which covers 25 critical employees.
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Kobo Gets $50 Million in New Financing
E-book and e-reader retailer Kobo has received a financial shot in the arm with $50 million in new financing, including $13 million from its majority shareholder Indigo Books and Music, Canada’s largest book retailer.
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AAP February 2011 Sales Report
AAP February 2011 Sales Report
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Print Stumbles Early As E-Books Skyrocket
The two reports measure different aspects of the book market and one is far more comprehensive than the other, but figures released last week by Nielsen BookScan and the Association of American Publishers showed a trade market where e-books are thriving and print books are struggling.
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February Bookstore Sales Rebound
The 4.9% decline in January bookstore sales was partially blamed on snowstorms that delayed students from buying textbooks for the spring semester. That reasoning seems to have been correct as the Census Bureau this morning reported that bookstore sales jumped 9.3% in February, to $1.11 billion. Sales include all items sold in college and trade bookstores. The rebound in February resulted in a slight two-month dip for bookstore sales, which were down 0.5%, to $3.33 billion.
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Industry Stocks: March Performances
Investors are placing more bets on Amazon and fewer on traditional retailers; that's the main takeaway from March's stock results. During the month, Amazon's share price rose 3.9%, while prices at Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million and Hastings all sank by double digits.
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Borders Paid Wholesalers $100 Million Prior to Chapter 11
A thick new document released yesterday lists every creditor to which Borders owes almost $396 million in trade payables, a second document shows how much money Borders paid publishers and other vendors within the 90 days prior to going Chapter 11. The two biggest companies to cash checks were Baker & Taylor and Ingram.
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