Costco Wholesale Corporation Reports December Sales Results

Penguin Random House’s attorneys responded today to the Department of Justice’s efforts to block its acquisition of Simon & Schuster, attacking the government’s main complaint, that the purchase would “likely result in substantial harm to authors of anticipated top-selling books and ultimately, consumers.” In filing its suit to block the deal November 2, the DOJ said that a combined PRH-S&S, along with HarperCollins, “would collectively control more than two-thirds of this market, leaving hundreds of authors with fewer alternatives and less leverage.” PRH attacks this charge on several levels and begins by calling the theory of a “top-selling” category “fiction,” noting that the government doesn’t even identify what size of an advance it is referring to. “The publishing industry does not divide the market for book rights into distinct categories based on the author’s compensation for the book,” PRH’s lawyers said.” “The royalty advance for a proposed book is driven mainly by the reader demand a particular editor anticipates for that particular book.”

Sales in the second quarter of 2017 totaled $5.552 billion, a decrease of 5.4 percent, compared with sales of $5.866 billion in the second quarter of 2016. The year-over-year decline in total sales reflects, in part, the closure of stores previously announced by the company. Comparable sales on an owned basis were down 2.8 percent in the second quarter and down 2.5 percent on an owned plus licensed basis. Year to date, Macy's, Inc.'s sales totaled $10.890 billion, down 6.4 percent from total sales of $11.637 billion in the first half of 2016. Comparable sales on an owned basis were down 4.0 percent in the first half of 2017 and down 3.6 percent on an owned plus licensed basis. Macy's, Inc.'s operating income totaled $254 million or 4.6 percent of sales for the second quarter of 2017 compared to $117 million, or 2.0 percent of sales for the second quarter of 2016. Excluding non-cash settlement charges of $51 million, operating income for the second quarter of 2017 totaled $305 million or 5.5 percent of sales. Excluding asset impairment and other charges primarily related to store closings of $249 million and non-cash settlement charges of $6 million, operating income for the second quarter of 2016 totaled $372 million or 6.4 percent of sales. For the first half of 2017, Macy's, Inc.'s operating income totaled $474 million or 4.4 percent of sales compared to $393 million or 3.4 percent of sales for the first half of 2016. Click Read More below for additional detail.

It seemed impossible that the acquisition of Simon & Schuster by Penguin Random House the day before Thanksgiving could be overshadowed by a bigger industry event, but that is what happened when book publishing’s long-running trade show and convention, most recently known as BookExpo, was canceled. As the buzz about the end of BookExpo has cooled down, industry members continue to digest the news of PRH’s pending purchase of S&S, the nation’s largest and third-largest trade book publishers, respectively. When the acquisition was announced, the Authors Guild, the American Booksellers Association, and the Association of American Literary Agents (formerly the AAR) all issued statements that were critical of the deal. While each organization had a particular take, all shared one thing in common: they were concerned about the increasing consolidation within trade publishing. The Authors Guild, which called the 2012 Random House–Penguin merger “unsettling,” took a tougher stance in PRH’s S&S purchase, saying that, for authors, the reduction of the Big Five to Big Four would leave “fewer competing bidders for their manuscripts, which would inevitably drive down advances offered.”