Observer » Inc.

Report: Harry Potter Earned $150 M. in 24 Hours

Tom McGeveran — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 12:19:19 -0400

Variety reports out an interesting take on the record-breaking sales of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows:

While the book and movie businesses are structured very differently, dollars the franchise generated domestically this weekend for its creator and distributor surpass what a studio might take in for a hit tentpole. Publishers typically sell books to wholesalers and retailers for a 40%-45% discount off the retail price, which means the Saturday sales alone could generate more than $150 million in receipts for Scholastic and Rowling.

8.3 million copies of the book sold in the first 24 hours after its midnight release July 21. When you consider that almost all of the marketing and advertising costs are borne by the retailers, that's a lot of dosh.

Scholastic Offices ‘A Madhouse’ After Harry Potter Book Leaks to Web

Lizzy Ratner — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 21:45:40 -0400

"It's a madhouse here." So quoth a flack at Scholastic, the publishers of the eagerly awaited Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the seventh and final book in the series by J.K. Rowling.

With three days, six hours, 26 minutes, and 12 seconds until the book goes on sale in bookstores midnight on Friday night, a set of photographs depicting each page of the book was uploaded to the bittorrent file-sharing site, Pirate Bay.

Salon blogger Farhad Manjoo confirmed today on his blog that all 759 pages are there, and legible.

Scholastic is presently preparing a statement-but had little else to say about the event.

How their system of security for the book--so tight even Dick Cheney's remote location was less secure--was violated will no doubt be the source of some investigation over the coming days.

Ed note: Could not help noticing that the book pictured appears to be the American edition-so the problem seems to be here in the U.S. and not in the U.K.

We'll update with Scholastic's statement shortly.

Barneys Suitor Losing Money On UNIQLO Store

Tom McGeveran — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 12:15:01 -0400

Fast Retailing Inc., the Japanese retail giant that owns the UNIQLO chain of cheap-chic clothing stores and which put together a $900 million bid to buy Barneys New York from the Jones Apparel Group, downgraded its forecast for the third time this business year.

According to Reuters:

Having built up an empire of more than 700 stores in Japan, Fast Retailing has pledged to invest up to 400 billion yen over the next three years on acquisitions in a bid to boost its global presence and double annual sales to 1 trillion yen by 2010.

The company gained a foothold in the U.S. market last year when it opened its first Uniqlo store in New York City. But its business there is still in the red, losing about 2 billion yen on an operating basis in the nine months to the end of May.

The retailer is competing with the Dubai firm of Istithmar. Executives from Fast Retailing would not say whether they would revise their Barneys bid upward if Istithmar, which has bid $825 million, ups the ante.

Reuters

Two Mideast Firms Drive Barneys Bidding Into Billions

Mon, 04 Jun 2007 11:54:38 -0400

WWD is reporting that two investment firms from the Middle East could drive the bidding for Barneys as high as $1.8 billion. We're not so familiar with the Qatar Investment Authority, but the other, Istithmar (a royal-family owned firm from Dubai) has been all over New York lately.

In April 2006, it acquired Six Times Square for $300 million. Two months later, it purchased 280 Park Avenue for $1.2 billion from Boston Properties. It capped off the summer of 2006 by purchasing 450 Lexington Avenue in August for $600 million.

Not wanting to limit itself to one particular niche, Istithmar also bought the W Hotel Union Square for $285 million in October and the former Knickerbocker hotel in Times Square for $300 million in June.