Amazon Has Blow Out Year
Led by a fourth quarter in which total sales jumped 42% and net income rose 71%, Amazon reported a 28% increase in sales for 2009, to $24.5 billion, with net income up 40%, to $902 million. In the North America media group, fourth-quarter sales rose 20%, to $2.1 billion, and sales for the full year increased 11.5%, to just under $6 billion. The bigger gains, however, came in the electronics and other general merchandise segment, where North America sales jumped 53% in the last quarter and 42% for the year The EGM segment is home to the Kindle. In a statement, CEO Jeff Bezos said, “Millions of people now own Kindles, ” and Amazon further noted that it now sells six Kindle books for every 10 physical books of the 410,000 e-books it has in stock (excluding free e-books).
Results at MHE Down in 2009
Total revenue at McGraw-Hill Education fell 9.5%, to $2.39 billion, in 2009. The decline was primarily due to a 18.4% decrease in sales in the school group, where revenue fell to $1.1 billion. Sales in the higher education/professional/international segment slipped 0.1%, to $1.3 billion. Operating profit fell 14.1%, to $276.1 million, as both 2009 ($11.6 million) and 2008 ($25.3 million) included one-time restructuring charges. Parent company McGraw-Hill Cos. said it expects sales at MHE to increase by 7%—8% in 2010, driven by a rebound in the elhi market and more gains in the higher education segment.
Ingram Cuts 57
Following last summer's restructuring, which created the Ingram Content Group, Ingram eliminated 57 positions late last month. One of the highest-ranking executives to be affected by the layoffs was Kelley Maier, senior v-p, product management & marketing. Most of her duties will now be assumed by Phil Ollila, who was appointed chief content officer last June when Ingram restructured its operation to create two units organized around different markets.
Indigo Quarter Up
Net earnings at Indigo Books and Music rose 29% for the third quarter ended December 26, to C$34.5 million ($32.4 million), compared to C$26.8 million ($25.2 million) in 2008. Revenue for the third quarter was C$340.2 million, up C$10.2 million from 2008's figure. Large-format Indigo and Chapters stores recorded 3.4% growth, but Coles and Indigo Spirit small-format stores were down 1.6%. Online sales on chapters.indigo.ca dropped 2.7%, to C$29.3 million.
Quad/Graphics To Buy World Color
Quad/Graphics, a privately held printer headquartered in Wisconsin, has agreed to acquire World Color Press in a deal that will result in a printer with annual revenue of over $5 billion. Quad said that, concurrent with the World Color purchase, it intends to begin the process of becoming a public company and expects to file for a listing on a “leading U.S. exchange.” Joel Quadracci, head of Quad/Graphics, will lead the combined companies as chairman, CEO, and president. The merger is expected to be completed this summer.
New Grand Central Imprint
Grand Central is launching a new imprint, Grand Central Life & Style, dedicated to the lifestyle and wellness category. The move will see current imprints Springboard Press and Wellness Central folded into the new line. Springboard and Wellness Central titles will continue to publish until September, at which time any books planned to publish under either imprint will come out as Grand Central Life & Style titles. Karen Murgolo, the publisher of Springboard, will oversee the imprint, which will release eight—12 titles annually.
B&N.com Realigns, Gets Subpoenaed
A realignment at Barnes & Noble.com late last month resulted in the elimination of some positions, but also included adding jobs in other areas. No details of the changes were made public.
Separately, the company acknowledged that it was one of 22 online retailers subpoenaed by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo as part of an investigation into retailers' deceptively linking consumers to membership programs that charge unauthorized fees under the guise of discount offers. B&N said it is not one of the retailers that turns over personal or credit or debit card information to discount clubs. “We welcome the Attorney General's review because it will show that Barnes & Noble does not, nor has it ever, shared customer debit or credit card information with discount clubs,” said William Lynch, president of Barnes & Noble.com.
Gale Buys Questia
Gale has acquired the assets of Questia Media. Founded in 1998, Questia was one of the first companies to offer online access to students for books and journals. The addition of Questia, said Gale president Patrick Sommers, “will expand our depth and reach to users who begin their search for information on the Web.”
HBRP Selling Chapters Via Kindle
Harvard Business Review Press has teamed up with Amazon to offer individual chapters from 10 of its titles for sale through the Kindle. A total of 117 chapters will be made available from HBRP's titles and are being sold as Harvard Business Review Short Cuts. HBP has priced the chapters at $3.95, and Amazon is selling them for $3.16. HBR is still determining what its plans for the e-chapters will be after Amazon's exclusive period expires.
Clarification
As a result of some confusion among the parties involved, last week's Deals column incorrectly reported that Jane Gardam's novel God on the Rocks had never been published in the U.S. The title was released in the States in 1979 by William Morrow.
