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London, United Kingdom


1880-1947 1963-1979 1980-1989 1990-1999 2000-2003

 

1880-1947   [Back to Top]

1880 Elsevier founded in Rotterdam by five Dutch booksellers, led by Jacobus George Robbers. They took the name (NV Uitgeversmaatschappij Elsevier) from the publishing house of the Elsevier family, which was established in 1580 and published such early scholars as Scaliger, Galileo, Erasmus and Descartes.
1887 Elsevier moved to Amsterdam and purchased the rights to Jules Verne's Illustrated Travels and other Dutch literary classics.
1894 Albert E. Reed bought the Upper Tovil paper mill at Maidstone, Kent, and founded the Reed company.
1903 Reed incorporates as Albert E. Reed & Company Ltd.
1931 Elsevier begins international scientific publishing
1937 Elsevier forms joint venture with Nordesmann Publishing Company to establish a branch of Elsevier in New York.
1946 Excerpta Medica founded.
1947 Elsevier publishes Biochemica et Biophysica Acta, their first English language journal.

1963-1979   [Back to Top]

1960 Excepta Medical electronic database (EMBASE) started.
1962 US and UK Elsevier Publishing Company begun.
1970 Reed acquires International Publishing Corporation (IPC), which comprises Mirror Group Newspapers and includes Odhams, George Newnes, National Trade Press, Pearsons, Collinridge, Amalgamated Press, Kellys, Thomas Skinner, Iliffe and Sone, Hulton Press, and Butterworths. It also included a 29.2% interest in Cahners Publishing in the USA.
1970 Parent company is now Reed International Limited, with former name, Reed Group Limited used for the European paper and packaging division.
1971 Merger of Elsevier Publishing Company NV, North Holland Publishing Company, and Excerpta Medica to form Associated Science Publishers.
1974 Reed forms publishing into two divisions: Mirror Group Newspapers and IPC.
1975 Merger of Uitgeversmaatschappij Elsevier and Edicom to form Elsevier Nederland.
1977 Reed completes acquisition of Cahners Publications.
1979 Elsevier purchases Congressional Information Services.
1979 Elsevier merges with Nederlandse Dagbladunie N.V., newspaper publishers and becomes Elsevier, N.V. Associated Scientific Publishers becomes Elsevier Scientific Publishers.

1980-1989   [Back to Top]

1981 Elsevier acquires Focal Press.
1982 Reed changes name from Reed International Ltd. to Reed International PLC
1982 Reed acquires The Update Group.
1984 Reed disposes of the Mirror Group Newspapers to Robert Maxwell for $90 million.
1985 Reed purchases R.R. Bowker Co. and Online Computer Systems, Inc.
1987 Reed purchases Octopus Publishing (mass Market non-fiction, children's books, education) for £ 540 million.
1987 Elsevier makes first attempt to takeover Kluwer, this attempt fails.
1987 Reed purchases Variety Magazine
1987 Reed acquires K G Saur Verlag.
1988 Elsevier forms a publishing partnership with Pearson PLC; the shares were sold in 1991.
1988 Mead Data Central buys the Michie Co. for $226.5 million; Elsevier purchases MDC in 1993.
1989 Reed purchases TV Times in the UK for £123 million.
1989 Reed purchases Martindale-Hubbell for £ 189 and merges it with R.R. Bowker and Butterworths.

1990-1999   [Back to Top]

1991 Reed purchases Marquis Who's Who and National Register Publishing from Macmillan for $145 million.
1991 Elsevier purchases Pergamon Press from Maxwell for £ 440 million.
1992 Reed International merges with Elsevier NV (becoming Reed Elsevier PLC as of January 1, 1993).
1992 Reed Elsevier purchases Parker & Sons Publications (Parker Griffin Publishing Company)
1993 Reed Elsevier purchases the Official Airline Guides for $417 million from Maxwell.
1994 Reed Elsevier purchases Mead Data for $1.5 billion, and renames it Lexis-Nexis.
1995 Reed Elsevier disposes of Reed Regional Newspapers in a management buyout, and sells the consumer magazines of Cahners.
1996 Reed Elsevier goes into a joint venture with Times Mirror to manage the Shepard's Company, publisher of legal citations.
1996 Reed Elsevier purchases Tolley Publishing Company.
1997 Reed Elsevier purchases JAI Press/Ablex Publishing.
1997 Reed Elsevier purchases the Chilton Business Group (American Metal, Motor Age, etc.), publisher of manufacturing materials from Walt Disney subsidiary ABC, Inc. for $447 million.
1997 Reed Elsevier purchases 40 US legal publications of the Thomson Corporation.
1997 Reed Elsevier purchases Colofon Group (business) and MDL Information Systems (scientific).
1998 Reed Elsevier sells IPC Magazines, Reed Children's Books, and Reed Illustrated Books.
1998 Reed Elsevier acquires The Beilstein Database, BioMedNet, ChemWeb, Engineering Information from Current Science Group.
1998 Reed Elsevier launches the Science Direct Database of online journals.
1998 Total acquisitions estimated at $1.2 billion.
1998 Reed Travel Group, Cahners Publications, and Chilton Publications combine to create Cahners Business.
1998 Reed Elsevier's Lexis Nexis division acquires Matthew Bender & Co. and the remaining 50% of Shepard from Times Mirror for $1.65 billion.
1999 Morris Tabaksblat appointed Chairman and Crispin Davis CEO of Reed Elsevier.

2000-2003   [Back to Top]

2000 Cahners Business acquires eLogic Corp. for $79 million.
2000 Cahners Business purchases CMD Group (construction publisher) for $300 million.
2000 Reed Elsevier's Lexis-Nexis Group acquires the Business Information Product of the Financial Times.
2000 Reed Elsevier acquires Miller Freeman Europe (business publishing) for $545 million.
2000 Reed Elsevier sells K. G. Saur to Thomson for an estimated $50 million.
2000 Reed Elsevier combines Lexis Nexis and Butterworth Tolley to form Lexis Nexis Butterworth Tolley.
2000 Reed Elsevier acquires Endeavor Information Systems, integrated library systems.
2000 Reed Elsevier acquires Schnell Publishing (chemical industry information).
2001 Reed Elsevier acquires Harcourt General for $4.5 billion (includes Academic Press, W.B. Saunders, Churchill Livingstone, Balliere Tindell, and Mosby).
2001 Reed Elsevier sells Harcourt's higher education publishing units and professional services to Thomson for $2.06 billion.
2001 Reed Elsevier sells Bowker to Cambridge Scientific Abstracts for a reported $20-$30 million and National Register Publishing Company and Marquis to Commonwealth Business Media.
2001 Reed Elsevier disposes of Cahners Travel Group and OAG (Official Airline Guides).
2002 Reed Elsevier purchases Qucklaw, MBO Verland and FactLANE, all legal publications.
2002 Reed Elsevier purchases the STM business of Holtzbrinck.
2003 Reed Elsevier purchases Applied Discovery and Dolan Media Company, both legal publishers.
2003 Reed Elsevier purchases CIMA Publishing, a publisher of learning products.
2005 Reed Elsevier purchases MediMedia, a profesional medical publishing business.