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News Shorts Staff -- 12/11/00 Access Publishers Network to Liquidate | Best Buy to Acquire Musicland Havas Testing Digital Textbooks | New Operations Head at CDS | New Role for Barty-King Court Kills Borders Subp na | Houghton Mifflin Inks Deal with netLibrary MHC to Acquire Mayfield Access Publishers Network to Liquidate An uncontested conversion to Chapter 7 liquidation was entered in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Grand Rapids, Mich., late last month for Access Publishers Network of Grawn, Mich. In July, the troubled distributor of 300 small and micro presses declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in response to a filing of a Chapter 7 petition by five former clients (News, July 24). "We filed the [new] petition of involuntary bankruptcy, because they haven't been able to come up with a business plan or find a buyer," Hal Lockwood, founder of Penmarin Books of Roseville, Calif., and chair of the committee of unsecured creditors, told PW. Penmarin, which is owed $200,000, is one of Access's largest creditors. The top 20 creditors together are owed slightly over $1 million. Fred Bimber, the attorney representing the unsecured creditors, emphasized that Access's publishers would like booksellers to hold on to their inventory throughout the all-important holiday selling season. "Ultimately," said Bimber, "it will be dependent on court order. I would expect the court will give booksellers ample opportunity for the return of books." Given the legal maneuvering into, out of and back into liquidation, the dissolution of Access has not been harmonious. Access CEO David Reecher, who is also CEO of umbrella company International Media Holdings, complained, "we've gotten no cooperation from the unsecured creditors committee." For their part, Lockwood and other creditors contend that Access transferred some of its assets to parent company Great Wisdom Publishing, a division of IMH. It will be up to court-appointed trustee Jim Boyd to look into the creditors' allegations of fraudulent conveyances before determining Access's assets and liabilities and distributing the net proceeds of what is recovered. --Judith Rosen Best Buy to Acquire Musicland Best Buy Co. reached a preliminary agreement last week to acquire Musicland for $685 million, a price that includes the assumption of $260 million in debt. Musicland had sales of $1.89 billion and earnings of $58.4 million in 1999. The acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of 2001, at which time Musicland will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Best Buy. Best Buy chairman Richard Schulze will head the combined companies, while Musicland CEO Jack Eugster will join the Best Buy board. Kevin Freeland, senior v-p at Best Buy, will be promoted to Musicland president after the deal closes. Best Buy is one of the country's largest specialty retailers of consumer electronics, personal computers, entertainment software and appliances. It operates more than 400 stores in 41 states and had sales of $12.5 billion in the fiscal year ended February 26, 2000. The chance to enter the book market d s not appear to have been a motivating factor behind the purchase. Schulze said Best Buy's decision to acquire Musicland was based on the retailer's "leading mall position." The purchase also presents Best Buy with the opportunity to transform Musicland's product offerings to include MP3 players, satellite systems, digital imaging, gaming and expanded accessories allowing Best Buy to capitalize on the strength of the digital product cycle, Schulze said. --Jim Milliot Havas Testing Digital Textbooks Meet the "electronic schoolbag," brought to you by Havas Education, part of the Havas-Vivendi group, which, thanks to the merger with Vivendi, is slated to become a major force in media new
Havas Education is the umbrella for all school publishing in the group, with imprints such as Nathan, Bordas and Larousse in France; the Anaya group in Spain; Aique in Argentina; Atica and Scipione in Brazil; and Chambers, Harrap and Kingfisher in the U.K. --Herbert R. Lottman New Operations Head at CDSThe distribution and fulfillment company Client Distribution Services has named Peter Dubuisson senior v-p and director of operations. Dubuisson will oversee operations at CDS's distribution center in Jackson, Tenn. He will report to Steve Black, chief operating officer of CDS. Before CDS, Dubuisson held a number of positions at Borders/ Walden and most recently oversaw Borders's LaVergne, Tenn., distribution operations. Black told PW Dubuisson's appointment reflects CDS's rapid growth, noting that its distribution center currently has about 90 employees, compared to 30 one year ago. Black estimated that when five new publishers that have signed agreements with CDS come on board in the first half of 2001, CDS will have annual sales of about $130 million. --Staff New Role for Barty-KingMark Barty-King will step down as managing director and CEO of Transworld Publishers on January 1, 2001, to become part-time chairman. Barty-King has headed Transworld, part of Random House Group Ltd., since 1995. In his new role, Barty-King will continue to work with a number of Transworld authors as well as remain involved in trade affairs and in a number of initiatives for RH. Transworld has named two men to succeed Barty-King as joint managing directors--Larry Finlay, at present deputy publisher, adult trade books, and Patrick Janson-Smith, currently deputy managing director, publishing. Both men will report to Gail Rebuck, CEO of RHGL as well as Transworld's sister company Random House U.K. --Staff Court Kills Borders Subp naA federal district court judge has quashed a subp na issued by the Drug Enforcement Administration seeking customer sales records from a Borders store in Overland Park, Kans. Borders had fought the subp na as a threat to First Amendment rights. The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE) and other members of the Media Coalition filed an amicus brief on behalf of Borders. The case is similar to the one involving the Tattered Cover in Denver, which has been ordered to turn over some information to local police. That decision is being appealed to the Colorado Supreme Court. Ann Binkley, a Borders spokesperson, told PW, "We're pleased." Jerry Wolf, one of Borders's lawyers, told the Kansas City Star that the company "is very gratified that its First Amendment rights and those of its customers have been vindicated." ABFFE called the decision "a victory for booksellers and readers everywhere." The organization noted that in this case and the one involving Kenneth Starr's subp na of Kramerbooks to find out about Monica Lewinsky's purchases, "judges have affirmed that law enforcement's need for
--John Mutter Houghton Mifflin Inks Deal with netLibraryHoughton Mifflin has signed a deal with netLibrary to launch a digital textbook initiative. Under the agreement, netLibrary's MetaText division will create electronic versions of selected HM college division titles. Ten texts in several different subjects will be converted to MetaText titles for use in fall 2001. More titles are expected to be added in following semesters. The converted texts will be available through netLibrary's Web site, and instructors can adopt the MetaText editions directly through their HM sales rep beginning next spring. A pricing schedule has not yet been set. June Smith, executive v-p of HM's college division, said the agreement with netLibrary reflects the publisher's commitment "to offer our customers the freedom to choose between reading materials in print or online. We chose MetaText to help us achieve our digital textbook goals because of the pedagogical value of the MetaText platform and the scalability of netLibrary's conversion, hosting and serving infrastructure." --Staff MHC to Acquire Mayfield The McGraw-Hill Companies added to its higher education holdings late last month, reaching an agreement to acquire Mountain View, Calif., college publisher Mayfield Publishing Co. Terms of the acquisition, which is expected to close in the first quarter of 2001, were not disclosed. Mayfield, one of the few remaining mid-sized college publishers, specializes in anthropology, sociology, health and physical education, humanities and theater, and has a backlist of about 500 titles. It released 85 titles in 2000 and plans to publish 92 titles in 2001. Robert Evanson, president of McGraw-Hill Education, said Mayfield "fits exceptionally well within our higher education business." MHC will integrate the Mayfield titles into its existing operations, and no decision had been reached last week about retaining the Mayfield name. --Staff | |||
News Shorts
Dec 11, 2000
A version of this article appeared in the 12/11/2000 issue of Publishers Weekly under the headline:
