Education Media said that "institutional investors will invest $650 million of new capital in Houghton," the paper said. "In turn, senior lenders have agreed to convert more than $2 billion of senior secured debt to equity. The publisher's approximately $2.1 billion in mezzanine-level secured debt is being exchanged for equity and warrants." Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's annual interest payments of about $450 million will be reduced to less than $200 million.
With the change, the largest investor will be the hedge fund Paulson & Co., Education Media's biggest lender. Paulson will have two of nine board seats.
Education Media bought Houghton Mifflin in 2006 for $1.75 billion and the following year bought Harcourt for $4 billion.
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Cool idea of the day: to help reduce inventory and raise funds for its move to new quarters, Dark Delicacies, the horror bookstore in Los Angeles, Calif., is holding a sale this Sunday in the store and an online auction with some unusual items. These include a copy of The Evil Dead Companion signed by Bruce Campbell and the rest of the film's cast; dinner with 30 Days of Night creator Steve Niles; and actor/director/comic book publisher Thomas Jane delivering a pizza to the winner's house in the Los Angeles area.
Thanks to Fearnet.com for highlighting the auction!
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Hobart, N.Y., "the book village
of the Catskills," has created a grassroots economic development
strategy "that will bring people back to work and infuse capital into
their communities," the Oneonta Daily Star reported.
There
are currently five bookstores in Hobart: Adams Antiquarian, Hobart
International Bookport, Blenheim Hill Book Shop, Liberty Rock Books and
the Bibliobarn. Local businessman Don Dales plans to open another,
Mysteries and More, on Main Street, and an old hobby shop is expected
to become a children's bookshop.
"Hay-on-Wye has been the
inspiration for it all," said Dales. "We are celebrating five years
this year and are experiencing slow but steady growth. Every year, we
have added more bookshops and are now attracting other businesses like
Hatherleigh Press."
"The book village is the reason we are
here.," observed Hatherleigh's owner Andrew Flach. "When I rode into
Hobart two years ago and discovered the book village, it was a
wonderful thing. The role of a book village in the world of books is
vital to preserve the collected works in original form. It's a
book-lovers' paradise."
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An anonymous buyer purchased
a 3,700-page uncensored, uncorrected manuscript of Giacomo Casanova's
diaries on behalf of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France for a price
believed to be in excess of €5million (US$6.8 million). The Guardian
reported that the papers were transferred to the library Monday, but
"they could soon be accessible to the general public. The BNF plans to
digitalize them as part of its online library, and to display them in
an exhibition next year."
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Barnes & Noble proudly noted that it was rated highest in the specialty retail category for customer satisfaction for the third year in a row, as measured by the American Customer Satisfaction Index, based on research conducted in the fourth quarter last year. With a score of 84, B&N was the top bookseller in the survey and ranked above the specialty retail category average of 77.
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Effective yesterday, Ralph Munsen has joined Hachette Book Group as senior v-p, chief information officer. He was most recently v-p, technology, at Clear Channel. Before that, he was director of new technology at EMI Music, where he oversaw global technology strategy, anti-piracy technologies and the creation of digital-only products.