Issue 8.2 | Summer 2006

Wottakar's is what occurs

I'm thinking of patenting this as a new saying along the lines of øQue sara, saraÓ or the rather more Zen øshit happens.Ó Not so much to express negativity as resignation. Something along the lines of øwhatever initiative is mooted as a possibility in the children's book world, with the likely side effect of shafting authors and illustrators, this possibility will become fact and there isn't anything we can do about it.Ó Let's say WIWO for short.

At the time of putting this edition of Armadillo online, the latest news in the HMV/Waterstone's bid saga, which has dominated editorials for far too long, is :

• HMV/Waterstone's has offered £62.8m (285 pence per share) to buy Ottakar's.
• The bid has been accepted by Ottakar's board..
• This is considerably less than the bid of £96.4m made last September.
• Both Ottakar's and Waterstone's have experienced a drop in profits, blaming the supermarkets and Amazon.
• The offer cannot be formally ratified until 28th June and theoretically a third party could step in with a better offer before then.
• Tim Waterstone's own bid to buy the store chain he started (and not bid for Ottakar's) foundered when acceptance conditions were made unacceptable and his financial backers pulled out.
• The Competition Commission found that the takeover deal would not lead to a øsubstantial lessening of competition.Ó It based this argument on statistics that Wottakar's jointly have 22% of the book market, supermarkets 8% and the Internet 12%.
• James Heneage, Ottakar's MD, whose management buyout bid last year triggered the HMV/Waterstone's interest, calls it øa realistic conclusion to an exhausting process.Ó

But here is a fine example of WIWO not happening: rumours flew round earlier this month that Gordon Brown was going to stop authors (and presumably illustrators) claiming their agents' fees as a tax-deductible expense and also reclaim the taxes not paid on that element for the last six years.

It would appear that this is NOT the case and applies to øentertainersÓ under contract as employees. We wish.

Happy hot summer to you all and no more WIWOs, at least until the autumn.

[details taken from Publishing News and BBC News online]
[Image from Wikipedia, licensed under Creative Commons]