Wednesday, June 27, 2012

News Corp Considers Splitting Off Publishing Division; HMH Officially Exits Bankruptcy


PublishersLunch
Following on a widely cited report from the WSJ that News Corp was considering splitting off its publishing division -- including HarperCollins --  from the rest of its business, the company confirmed that "it is considering a restructuring to separate its business into two distinct publicly traded companies," with the NYT adding that further news about the possible spinoff could come as soon as this week.
While the move has been speculated about for several years, more seriously since the phone-hacking scandal broke open last summer, company ceo Rupert Murdoch has apparently and "recently warmed to the idea", which would still leave him and his family effectively in charge of both divisions as separate entities. News Corp stock rose more than 7 percent in early morning trading on the news.
For the first three quarters of fiscal 2012, the publishing division earned $6.2 billion in revenue and $458 million in profit (as compared to the $4.2 billion in overall News Corp profit.) It's no longer known exactly how much HarperCollins contributes to the bottom line, since News Corp stopped breaking out the numbers a couple of years ago, but the publishing house stated it had a "terrific quarter" for the period ending March 31, with digital revenues increasing to nearly 18 percent of the overall business. News Corp also mentioned that HarperCollins contributed to "improved conditions" for the publishing segment. However, HC's bid to buy Thomas Nelson for approximately $200 million last October has still not closed yet, a company spokesperson told us.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt said late last week that it had exited Chapter 11 bankruptcy, one day after federal court approved the company's restructuring plan and a little over a month after filing the pre-packaged bankruptcy on May 21. "We have achieved our financial restructuring objectives and moved through this process quickly and successfully," HMH president and ceo Linda Zecher said in a statement. "Now we have emerged with significantly less debt, a much improved balance sheet and capital structure and the financial strength to invest in new products and innovative digital education solutions to grow our business for the benefit of our customers.  Our emergence reflects the dedication of our team and the strong support of our investors and lenders to position HMH for long-term success."

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