PublishersLunch
As of August 31, Jana Partners no
longer held any shares in Barnes & Noble, the company disclosed in an SEC
filing on Tuesday. The investment firm, which owned 7 million shares of the
bookseller when they first filed disclosure forms in April, still held a little
over 4 million shares as of their most recent previous filing at the end of
June. BN's stock has been trading near a 52-week low over the past three weeks.
At Bertelsmann's
annual meeting gathering hundreds of executives companywide in Gutersloh,
Germany, ceo Thomas Rabe said "the group does 'not have all the skills
required' to profit from the shift of media to the internet and called the
company's position in the US 'insufficient,'" attendees told the FT.
He wants to "do more" to increase the company's interests "in
the world's leading market" (that's us). Rabe is trying to rectify what
has been "low growth and low growth potential" at the company.
In potential acquisitions, Australia's Allen & Unwin is
in exclusive
talks to acquire Murdoch
Books. Owner Matt Handbury (nephew of Rupert Murdoch) tells the
Sydney Morning Herald, "I think we've got a much reduced market and our
form of publishing needs to be in a bigger business where the overheads can be
spread out a bit." Though Murdoch published Stieg Larsson in Australia,
their focus is cooking and illustrated titles, and they laid off 26 staff
members in May.
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