Costco Wholesale Corporation Reports July Sales Results

Bookstore sales took an unprecedented plunge in April, tumbling 65.3% compared to April 2019, according to preliminary estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau. April sales fell a total of $412 million from 2019, dropping to an anemic $219 million. In March, bookstore sales fell 33.4% compared to a year ago. March sales were $392 million, meaning April sales declined 44.3% from March to April. Total retail sales dropped 19.4% in April compared to 2019 after falling 6.6% in March from 2019.

S&P Global announced it has entered into an agreement to sell its Leveraged Commentary and Data (LCD) business and its related family of leveraged loan indices to Morningstar Inc. Morningstar has agreed to purchase LCD for $650 million in cash, comprised of $600 million paid at closing, subject to adjustment, and a contingent payment of up to $50m of which is payable six months following the closing upon the achievement of certain conditions related to the transition of LCD customer relationships. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including antitrust approvals. LCD is a leading research group that provides highly differentiated and proprietary research on the U.S. and European leveraged loan, high-yield bond, collateralized loan obligation (CLO) and mid-market/direct lending markets.

The Association of American Publishers announced the final resolution of Hachette Book Group v. Internet Archive, after Internet Archive declined to file a cert petition with the U.S. Supreme Court by the December 3, 2024 deadline. We are pleased that the Second Circuit’s September 4, 2024 opinion stands as the eloquent legal ending to this case, as it draws extensively on Supreme Court precedent and will be broadly impactful to other controversies, including artificial intelligence cases. “After five years of litigation, we are thrilled to see this important case rest with the decisive opinion of the Second Circuit, which leaves no room for arguments that ‘controlled digital lending’ is anything more than infringement, whether performed by commercial or noncommercial actors, or aimed at authorship that is creative or factual in nature. As the Court recognized, the public interest—and the progress of art and science that is the mandate of the Constitution’s copyright clause—is served best when authors and their publisher licensees can decide the terms on which they make their works available. We are indebted to Hachette, HarperCollins, Penguin Random House, Wiley, their authors, and the many amici in this case who stood up for copyright, without which we would be a less inspired and less informed society.”