Chapters makes bold statement about future of books
April 20, 2003 - 4:19pm — bmann
I took this picture myself in Vancouver, at the big Chapters on Robson.
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She owns
...I meant to respond before...
She owns them by way of having majority ownership of the public company... Just like the Bombardier family "owns" Bombardier while it is a public company. Even if there is more equity outstanding than the value of their ownership, someone can own "multiple voting shares" that allow them to control the company. There are many examples of this in Canada... and almost none (if any) in the US. Further Canadian examples include ONEX (owned by Reismann's husband), Shaw Cable (Shaw family), and Magna (Stronach). There are a couple of interesting articles (1,2{Note: I don't typically like Matthew Ingram - I find him to rant about the extremes in the world and simply go overboard}) on this. A number of the companies in this situation are media companies and it appears that they brought this structure on to appease Canadian control rules - equity ownership could be more international, while control stayed in Canadian hands.
What's a book?
Isn't Chapters a coffee shop with nice magazines and free newspapers?
Indeed
What more would you expect from a bookstore owned by a free-speech opposing rich lady... Grrr... I hate her... :) I order all my books from Amazon now, at least they support Canada Post... :) And they're offering Saturday delivery for my advance purchased copy of the new Harry Potter book! :)
Owner?
Who is the owner? I thought it was publicly owned. With all the mergers that brought about the most recent incarnation of this monster, I would think that there would be a quite diverse ownership.
I take it you live in a major city then?
Heather Reismann
no, this lady owns all bid bookstore chains in Canada. I seem to remember something about the Chretien government encouraging Indigo to take over Chapters, expressing their preference for big monopolies.