New Concepts, B&N, Time Warner

More On New Concepts Publishing
My good friend Cat Brown aka Samantha Storm is the owner and operator of the Romance Junkies website.

Check out a post she did on the RJ blog on Tuesday here about online publisher New Concepts.

Barnes & Noble Eyes Borders
The Wall Street Journal had an article about Barnes & Noble studying the possibility of acquiring Borders:

Barnes & Noble Inc., the nation's largest book chain by sales, has assembled a team of executives and advisers to study the possibility of acquiring No. 2 chain Borders Group Inc., according to a person familiar with the situation.

Whether such a deal would pass antitrust hurdles is unclear. Barnes & Noble has about 20% to 22% of the retail book market, while Borders controls 10% to 12%, estimates Albert Greco, a professor at the Fordham Graduate School of Business.

Time Warner Spins Off Cable Division
Two years ago, in February 2006, corporate raider Carl Icahn proposed breaking up the Time Warner Company into four separate companies: AOL, television and film, publishing and cable.

In an effort to appease Icahn, Time Warner agreed to a deal that included reducing costs by a $1 billion. A month later in March 2006, Time Warner sold the Time Warner Book Group to French publisher Hachette Livre, of the Lagardere Group. A year later, the new owners changed the name of the Time Warner Book Group to Grand Central Books.

The Associated Press reported yesterday:

Media conglomerate Time Warner and Time Warner Cable say their boards have approved the companies' legal separation, with Time Warner Cable expected to pay a hefty $10.9 billion one-time dividend to shareholders. New York-based parent Time Warner Inc. will receive $9.25 billion of the dividend payout.

"Separating the two companies will help their management teams focus on realizing the full potential of the respective businesses and will provide investors with greater choice in how they own this portfolio of assets," said Time Warner President and Chief Executive Jeff Bewkes.

The new deal leaves Time Warner with two of the four divisions: AOL and the television and film unit.