Top News of the Week

Bologna Book Fair recap. A Publishing Perspectives article cited Bookigee’s Kristen McLean, who best summed up the overall takeaway from the Fair: “The children’s book market is the best bellwether, the best Ouija board, of where we’re going as an industry.” More wrap-up from Bologna at Publishers Weekly.

Shareholder bids for B&N college bookstores: According to The New York Post, “Barnes & Noble shareholder G Asset Management offered to buy 51 percent of its college bookstore business in a deal valuing the unit at $460 million as the company considers options to boost its value.”

Nook in the UK? Although B&N isn’t going to be expanding bookstores abroad, “Barnes & Noble is reportedly partnering with UK bookstore chain Waterstones to sell the Nook, though the company hasn’t confirmed it.” See Paid Content’s full report. 

Amazon replacing workers with robots?  Citing The Wall Street Journal, Shelf Awareness reported that Amazon bought Kiva Systems, a $775 million acquisition. Kiva creates robots used in warehouses. According to Kiva, “a packer working with its robots can fulfill three to four times as many orders per hour.”

3 million iPad 3s sold in 3 days. USA Today reports how this is the most impressive iPad launch yet.

Bilbary.com in beta. The international e-bookstore started by Tim Coates went live this past week, with about 340,000 titles from about 2,300 publishers. According to Publishers Weekly, Coates “is positioning Bilbary to be publisher, customer, and library friendly. Publishers can set their own prices and change them whenever they want.”

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