Nelson Has New Owner
An investor group led by Kohlberg & Company has acquired a majority stake in Thomas Nelson. According to Nelson, the investment "will significantly improve the company's capital structure and eliminate the majority of its long-term debt." InterMedia Partners, which led the Nelson $473 million buyout in 2006, maintains a minority interest. Kohlberg has appointed a number of new board members, including former HarperCollins CEO and cofounder of Open Road Integrated Media, Jane Friedman. Kolhberg is a major backer of Open Road. Also named to the board was Nelson's current CEO Michael Hyatt, who was named chairman.

April Store Sales Fall
The U.S. Census Bureau reported that bookstore sales fell 4.1% in April, to $917 million. The April decline left sales flat at $5.24 billion through the first four months of 2010. Sales for the entire retail market rose 4.6% in April, and were up 4.0% for the first four months of the year.

F+W Revamps Debt
F+W Media has restructured its debt, which reducd it by 50%, and appointed a new board that is now headed by F+W CEO David Nussbaum. As part of the financial restructuring, ABRY Partners is now no longer the lead shareholder for F+W, although it will retain a small share of the company. Nussbaum said he was "more than happy" to see the debt restructuring completed.

Wiley, Guild Suspend Fight
The sparring between John Wiley and the Authors Guild came to a temporary conclusion last week when Wiley said it would contact all Bloomberg authors to make sure they understood the changes to the contract it was proposing. The Guild said it was pleased Wiley wouldn't hold authors to letters they may have signed endorsing the new terms, but said it was disappointed the publisher didn't support its proposal to compare the new and old contracts at the conclusion of the next royalty period. The Guild said it will offer a free service to Bloomberg authors that will provide a side-by-side comparison of the original Bloomberg contract and Wiley's proposed amendments when royalties are next issued.

LB Launched Mulholland Books
Little, Brown has a new suspense fiction imprint, Mulholland Books, which will release its first list in spring 2011. Mulholland Books is helmed by editor John Schoenfelder, who joined LB in January, and other LB editors will also acquire for the imprint. The plan is for Mulholland to grow to 24 books a year, one hardcover and one paperback a month, by 2012. Right now only new acquisitions are going onto the Mulholland Books imprint, although that could change in the future.

Nebraska Book Co. Reports
Revenue at the Nebraska Book Company slipped to $605.5 million in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2010, from $610.7 million in the previous year, but the company posted net income of $2.3 million, compared to a loss of $110.5 million, a figure that included a write-down of $107 million. Adjusted EDITDA was $73.4 million in the year, up from $71 million.

Sales in the college bookstore division rose slightly, to $472.5 million, as new stores offset a 2.6% decline in same store sales. The drop in comp sales was due in part to the launch of a textbook rental program instituted in the fiscal fourth quarter. Revenue in the textbook division fell 4.5%, to $140.6 million, because of a decline in units sold. Revenue in the complementary services unit, which houses NBC's distant
education and e-commerce services businesses, increased 3.6%, to $35.5 million. NBC operated 280 bookstores
at the end of March.