Personanondata: Pearson; Bertelsman, Random House, Quills

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Pearson; Bertelsman, Random House, Quills

Pearson buys Apple “PowerSchool”Pearson has agreed to purchase the Powerschool school information system (SIS) which manages student records including attendance and grades from Apple Inc . This represents a solid strategic move into school administration tools in a core education market for Pearson. As more details become available it will be interesting to see how Pearson integrates content onto the IPOD platform which is assumed to be part of this deal. One could assume under Apple this development work must be significantly underway and will gain greater urgency with a clear path available to the Pearson content. http://www.prnewswire.com/news/index_mail.shtml?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/05-25-2006/0004368633&EDATE==

Bertelsman buys back stake:As reported earlier this week, Bertelsmann did the expected and purchased the 25% stake owned by Groupe Bruxelles and thereby avoided an IPO. The amount paid $5.8bill was on the high side of expectations. Financial markets had generally anticipated this would be the outcome and therefore there was minimal impact on their debt pricing. Some debt agencies have indicated they may reduce their ratings and are reviewing the deal accordingly. It is doubtful this deal will materially impact the Bertelsmann investment and product development cycle. As noted in earlier releases the company is selling its stake in BMG Music Publishing.http://today.reuters.com/business/newsarticle.aspx?type=ousiv&storyID=2006-05-25T105303Z_01_L25267303_RTRIDST_0_BUSINESSPRO-MEDIA-BERTELSMANN-GBL-DC.XML

Random House, Starbucks and RabbitsThe two companies have announced that Starbucks will sell newly issued copies of the Velveteen Rabbit and The Night Before Christmas audiobooks. The titles will be exclusively available at the end of August for four months at the coffee stores.http://finanzen.net/news/news_detail.asp?NewsNr=401357

Analysts’ Positive View of Educational Publishers.http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8HQ7GSO0.htm?campaign_id=apn_home_down&chan=db

Quills Awards:Further information has been announced on broadcast dates and benefactors of the Quills foundation. The awards will be held at the Natural History Museum on October 10, 2006http://www.wnbc.com/entertainment/9268537/detail.html

Bloomsbury has bought drama publisher Methuen: http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=entertainmentNews&storyID=2006-05-25T113351Z_01_L25742994_RTRUKOC_0_UK-MEDIA-METHUEN-BLOOMSBURY.xml

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Michael Cairns

Michael Cairns is currently Head of Partner and Channel Development for the publishing unit of the American Psychological Association which is a $100million scholarly, academic and educational publisher. In this role, he is responsible for all sales and marketing activities supporting the revenue base and working with current and new partners to expand APA's publishing program and mission. Michael Cairns has served as President, CEO and CRO of several brand name publishing, technology and content-centric businesses. His career includes a wide range of publishing and information products, services and B2B categories and his operating and consulting experience has largely been with brand-name companies such as PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Macmillan, Inc., Berlitz International, AARP, R.R. Bowker and Wolters Kluwer. Mr. Cairns has also served on boards including the Association of American Publishers (AAP), the Book Industry Study Group (BISG) and also served as Chairman of the International ISBN Executive Committee.