S&P Global Acquires ProntoNLP, Expanding its Generative AI-Powered Product Portfolio

Sales at the Hachette Book Group rose 2.7% last year, parent company Lagardere reported. The increase was attributed in part to contributions from Perseus (where You Are a Badass sold over 648,000 print copies) and its Nashville-based imprints (where The Shack had strong sales). HBG also benefited from a full year ownership of Perseus, which it acquired at the end of March in 2016. Earlier this year. Lagardere reported that total revenue in the publishing group was €2.29 billion, up 1.1% over 2016. In its release Thursday, the company said EBIT (earnings before interest and taxes) rose 1.0%, to €210 million. Similar to the sales gain, Lagardere said the profit improvement was "mainly attributable to a strong performance in the United States," driven by "successful releases" as well as continued profitability gains from the consolidation of Perseus. Click Read More below for additional information.

*Net sales of $4.24 billion, down 6% compared to last year, inclusive of an estimated 1-point foreign exchange headwind. Net sales were in-line with the company’s expectations for mid-single digit declines in the quarter. -Comparable sales down 5% year-over-year. -Store sales decreased 3% compared to last year. -Online sales decreased 10% compared to last year and represented 41% of total net sales. *Gross margin was 33.6%, deleveraging 10 basis points versus last year. -Merchandise margin increased 20 basis points versus last year as higher discounting and inflationary commodity price increases were offset by lower air freight expense. -Rent, occupancy, and depreciation (ROD) deleveraged 30 basis points versus last year primarily due to lower online sales in the quarter. *Operating loss was $30 million; operating margin of negative 0.7%. *Net loss of $273 million; diluted loss per share of $0.75.

Total revenues across all categories for June 2023 were down 1.3% as compared to June 2022, coming in at $890.0 million. Year-to-date revenues were up 1.2%, at $5.6 billion for the first half of the year. Trade (Consumer Books) revenues were down 0.9% in June, coming in at $633.5 million. In terms of physical paper format revenues during the month of June, in the Trade (Consumer Books) category, Hardback revenues were up 5.8%, coming in at $191.2 million; Paperbacks were down 3.0%, with $246.0 million in revenue; Mass Market was down 39.1% to $13.0 million; and Special Bindings were up 2.5%, with $11.1 million in revenue.