Slumping E-books Lead to Sales Decline at HBG

While sale for the entire Lagardere Publishing Group rose in the first quarter of 2015, compared to last year's first period, revenue at Hachette Book Group USA declined 12.3%, the company reported Tuesday morning.

The revenue decline in the U.S. was due to lower e-book sales plus difficult comparisons to the first quarter of 2014, when HBG had a number of big bestsellers including The Goldfinch, I Am Malala and Grain Brain. Lagardere attributed this quarter's drop in e-book sales, in part, to the fact that the company's results do not yet reflect a return to normal business with Amazon.