Springer merges with Macmillan to form Springer Nature

In a major development which has the potential to impact the world of academic publishing more than one way, Springer Science+Business Media and the majority of Macmillan Science and Education have come together to form a new company called Springer Nature.

Printweek
Springer is a global company that publishes books, eBooks and peer-reviewed journals in science, technical and medical publishing. Macmillan Science and Education and Macmillan Publishers are the divisions of the Holtzbrinck Publishing Group, a family-owned company headquartered in Germany. Macmillan Science publishes the well-known international weekly journal of science, ‘Nature’.
 
The agreement between Holtzbrinck Publishing Group, owner of Macmillan Science and Education, and BC Partners, advisors of funds, which own Springer, was announced on 15 January 2015. On 6 May, key competition authorities, including the European Union and the US Department of Justice, cleared the merger.
 
Springer Nature has been created through the combination of Nature Publishing Group, Palgrave Macmillan, Macmillan Education and Springer Science+Business Media. This strategic merger brings together these dynamic publishing houses with more than 150 years of history behind them, as well as complementary geographic footprints and brand portfolios, a track record of creativity and innovation, and a shared vision to advance knowledge and learning around the world.
 
Derk Haank, chief executive officer, Springer Nature, said, “We are bringing the Springer and Nature brands to the fore in our new name to emphasise the rich science publishing heritage that we share. The newly expanded company is home to a wide range of brands and successful businesses with a global footprint. This includes our respected global language learning, schools and higher education group, and our professional group, which supports professional learning in fields such as medicine, engineering and transport.”
 
Haank added that the unified approach will enable the company to have a global view. “This will put us in a strong position to benefit from the combined skills and talents of our organisation and to better serve researchers, students, teachers and professionals by helping them to discover more.”
 
Springer Nature has an estimated turnover of €1.5bn and 13,000 employees. It is under the joint control of Holtzbrinck and funds advised by BCP, with Holtzbrinck retaining a 53% share. Haank, formerly the CEO of Springer, has been joined by former CEO of Macmillan Science and Education Annette Thomas as chief scientific officer and Springer executives Martin Mos and Ulrich Vest as chief operating officer and chief financial officer respectively.
 
Holtzbrinck’s investments in IT and software businesses, its consumer books unit Macmillan Publishers and its US higher education business will not be part of the transaction.
 
Stefan von Holtzbrinck, chief executive of Holtzbrinck, said, “The combination is a big and exciting step into the future and a clear opportunity for all – for our customers, for our great teams in all parts of the world, for the development of the publishing houses involved and also for the family-owned Holtzbrinck Publishing Group.”
 
The scientific publishing market is dominated by the so-called ‘big four’ companies: Springer (which reports hosting 2,987 journals), Elsevier (3,057), Wiley (2,339) and Taylor & Francis (2,105). Together, they comprise around 30% of the world’s total scholarly peer-reviewed journals, which number 34,585 (28,134 English language), according to Ulrichsweb, an online directory of scholarly journals.
 
They are followed by an enormous number of smaller publishers: Macmillan publishes only 160 journals, but many of them bear the well-known Nature brand.
 
Exactly where the merger leaves the combined company in the science journal publishing market depends on which financial figures one chooses to quote. Elsevier reported £2.1 billion revenues in 2013 (€2.7 billion), while its parent company, Reed Elsevier, made £6.6 billion, but only £1.1 billion of that is from science journals. Two other science publishers, Pearson (€5.2 billion) and Wolters Kluwer (€3.6 billion) are also larger companies, but have far smaller footprints in journals. Pearson has no journal revenues and focuses on news media, education and books, whereas Wolters Kluwer has only a small medical journals business. The new combined firm would also have a big presence in textbooks, as Springer already publishes more than 8,000 books each year.
 
(Sources: Macmillan Science and Education; nature.com; springer.com)
 
 
Springer Science+Business Media

Headquartered in Berlin, established in 1842 by Julius Springer, the company, within the science, technical and medical publishing, is the largest book publisher and second-largest journal publisher worldwide after Elsevier, with around 55 publishing houses.

In 1964, Springer expanded its business internationally, opening an office in New York. Offices in Tokyo, Paris, Milan, Hong Kong, and Delhi soon followed. The academic publishing company BertelsmannSpringer was formed after Bertelsmann bought a majority stake in Springer-Verlag in 1999. The British investment groups Cinven and Candover bought BertelsmannSpringer from Bertelsmann in 2003. They merged the company in 2004 with the Dutch publisher Kluwer Academic Publishers which they bought from Wolters Kluwer in 2002, to form Springer Science+Business Media.

In 2009, Cinven and Candover sold Springer to two private equity firms, EQT Partners and Government of Singapore Investment Corporation. The closing of the sale was confirmed in February 2010 after the competition authorities in the USA and in Europe approved the transfer.

 
Source: PrintWeek