No 6 - Wiley Buys Over Blackwell

John Wiley & Sons Inc. has agreed to buy London-based academic journal and book publisher Blackwell Publishing Holdings Ltd. for $1.08 billion in cash and debt.

The decision by the Oxford-based academic publisher to sell itself will also put an end to the ongoing internal strife within the Blackwell family, which have hindered previous attempts to sell off the business in the recent past.

Blackwell’s which traces its history back to a small bookshop opened in 1879 in Oxford, is one of Britain’s biggest and best-known privately-held businesses. Although Blackwell Publishing is a separate company from the Blackwell bookshop chain, Blackwell family members serve on both company boards.

The publishing business has in recent years outperformed the bookshops chain, which has struggled against the growing use of the internet as a research tool and the competition from internet booksellers such as Amazon.

For Wiley, which publishes scientific, technical and medical journals, encyclopaedias and online products, the deal transform it into the second largest scientific publisher after Reed Elsevier.

The transaction is expected to be completed by early 2007.

About John Wiley & Sons Inc.

John Wiley was founded in 1807 and in the early years was best known for the works of Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville, and other 19th century American literary giants. By the turn of the century, Wiley has established itself as one of the leading publisher of scientific and technical information. It has 3,500 employees worldwide, with operations in the United States, Europe (England, Germany and Russia), Canada, Australia and Singapore.

About Blackwell Publishing

Blackwell Publishing is the world's leading society publisher, partnering with 665 academic, medical, and professional societies. Blackwell publishes 805 journals and, to date, has over 6,000 books in print. The company has over 1,000 staff members in offices in the US, UK, Australia, China, Denmark, Germany, Japan and Singapore.