Company OCT. 31 NOV. 30 % Change
Source: Reed Business Information
Winners
Reader's Digest 14.38 16.75 16.5%
John Wiley & Sons 35.30 39.78 12.7
Borders Group 20.59 22.90 11.2
Marvel 25.35 28.10 10.8
Scholastic 31.42 33.32 6.0
Losers
Hastings Ent. 7.85 7.25 -7.6%
Barnes & Noble 41.31 40.02 -3.1
Reed Elsevier 45.31 43.94 -3.0
Courier Corp. 39.22 38.38 -2.1
Educational Dev. Corp. 6.83 6.70 -1.9
Publishers Weekly
Stock Index 479.63 497.77 3.8%
Dow Jones Aver. 12,080.73 12,221.93 1.2%
Acquisitions had a major impact on this month's Publishers Weekly Stock Index. Ripplewood's offer to acquire Reader's Digest for $17 per share drove RD's stock price up 16.5% in November, the biggest gain in the month. The market also endorsed John Wiley's $1 billion offer to buy Blackwell Publishing by pushing up Wiley's stock 12.7%. Also in November, Banta paid out a $16 per share special dividend, while Donnelley's $36.50 a share offer for the printer moved forward. Hastings Entertainment's stock price, which had enjoyed a strong few months, cooled off in November, falling 7.6%. Barnes & Noble's third quarter did not impress investors, who dropped the stock price 3.1%. In all, share prices of 15 stocks rose and six fell.