Crown Books president Anna Currence told PW that she is no longer actively pursuing a plan that involved selling ownership of the bookstore chain to its creditors, many of whom are publishers. News of the plan surfaced in last week's Washington Post, which reported that the proposal had been rejected by the creditors' committee.
If the publishers were to try to take over Crown, the deal would certainly be opposed by the American Booksellers Association, and Currence acknowledged that antitrust implications was one reason she has shelved the idea. Currence said she and her management team are now looking for other "creative solutions" to bring Crown out of Chapter 11. One possible scenario is to have another party buy the publishers' claims, and then have the new creditors take over the company. Currence also said the chain continues to look for a company that may be interested in acquiring Crown in a more traditional manner, although she ruled out Barnes &Noble and Borders as likely suitors.
According to Currence, Crown had a strong holiday season and she estimated that sales for the fiscal year ended January 31, 1999, will be at least $189 million. She said that Crown's finances have been cleaned up and that it now makes a much more attractive acquisition candidate than it was a year ago. Indeed, Crown posted its first profitable month in some time; it reported a net profit of $2.5 million on sales of $30.4 million in December.
