The U.S. Department of Justice’s antitrust division approved May 7 the $4.5-billion purchase of American publisher Harcourt General by the Anglo-Dutch firm Reed Elsevier, the Boston Globe reported May 8.
The purchase was strongly opposed by the Washington-based Association of Research Libraries, which had been urging the Justice Department to reject the deal. In a statement issued the same day, ARL reiterated its concern that consolidation in the publishing industry will result in “continued, extraordinary price increases [that] will severely erode the academic journal marketplace.” It noted that commercial sci-tech journals have increased in price roughly 11% a year between 1990 and 2000, “at a time when the consumer price increased at an annual rate of just 2.6%.”
The British Competition Commission is still considering the implications of the purchase in the journal market, where Reed owns such leading publications as Lancet and New Scientist. Securities analyst Simon Baker said in the May 7 Financial Times, “The longer the regulatory review drags on, the more the potential value for Reed in this financial year is eroded.” The commission has until May 28 to report its findings.
Posted May 14, 2001.