Amazon loves Harry Potter –
Publisher’s Weekly.com has reported that Amazon.com had an increase in sales of 13.6% in the second quarter ending June 30^th.  Amazon moved 1.4 million units of the latest Harry Potter book but claimed a break-even in profit. The gem of the Potter book was that Amazon picked up 250,000 new customers.
 
Lynn Bond to Kensington –
Long time Random House Value employee, Lynn Bond has landed at Kensington.  The former president of RHV will now be responsible for sales at Kensington where she will report to Laurie Parking, vice president. (Source: PW Newsline)
 
Yellow Freight Corporation explains purchase –
In possibly the biggest trucking news since deregulation, Yellow Corporation has purchased Roadway Express.  In a recent interview with Yellow Corporation’s Chairman, William Zollars, Transport Topics explains the reason for the buyout.  “This merger is about growing, not shrinking,” said Zollars. “We can operate more successfully under one umbrella than two.”
Yellow Corp. agreed to pay 966 million for the number one Roadway Express.  Half in cash, half in Yellow shares, and agreed to assume 140 million in Roadway debt for their recent purchase of New Penn Motor Express (northeastern regional carrier).
Zollars explained that manufacturing made up most (20%) of Yellow’s customer base while Roadway’s was not. Believing that both companies shared only 30% of each other’s customer base made the deal appear that Yellow would be buying a customer base with very little duplication.  Zollars also felt that there would be approximately 30 million of cost savings that could be realized by the merger. Another reason for the merger was to allow Yellow to focus on regional and super regional business while Roadway could be the dominate long haul carrier. (Source: Transport Topics, July 21, 2003)
 
According to the SMCA newsletter, the merger will make the Yellow-Roadway Corporation a 6 billion dollar company. One executive summed up the deal by saying, “If I am an executive at ABF, Conway, FedX or any other top flight regional carriers – I am jumping for joy. If for no other reason, shippers will be contacting those companies just to get competitive bids. “It’s a new day, my friend.”
 
Bookselling this Week continues its series on succession planning. Read how 6 new owners purchased existing bookstores. Go to www.bookweb.com and look for Article - “Successful Succession: New Owners Talk About Buying a Bookstore.”
 
B&N.com to buy back shares –
According to PW Newsline, Bertelsman is selling back its shares of B&N.com for 164 million dollars. The move will allow Bertelsman “to focus on books and music clubs”, according to Ewald Wolgenback, CEO of Bertelsmann.