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Information Today, Inc. (TTI) announced that it has entered into a joint agreement with Cambridge Scientific Abstracts (CSA) to buy R.R. Bowker from Reed Elsevier (R-E). Cambridge is purchasing the major portion of Bowker, and ITI is acquiring the publishing rights to about 10 reference books. The amount of the transaction was not disclosed, but sources close to the deal report that several bids were received in the $20 to $30 million range. The acquisition is actually being accomplished in two steps, with the Cambridge Information Group (CIG) first purchasing all of Bowker from Reed Elsevier and forming Bowker, LLC, and then ITI purchasing the directories from Bowker, LLC.
Cambridge is acquiring the entire Books In Print family of products; Ulrich's Periodical Directory; Magazines for Libraries; a number of abstracts and indexes, including British Humanities Index and Library and Information Science Abstracts (LISA); a number of journals and newsletters, such as Business Information Review and Journal of Information Science; and miscellaneous other products. In addition, Cambridge retains the contract for Bowker, LLC to have the exclusive right to operate the U.S. office of the ISBN (International Standard Book Number) agency.
Andrew (Drew) Meyer, the current CEO of Bowker and Marquis, will be retiring. Michael Cairns, Bowker's former vice president for business development, will be executive vice president and general manager of Bowker, LLC, and will report to Jim McGinty, president of Bethesda, Marylandbased Cambridge Information Group.
Cairns said: "While the divestiture process was disruptive, we are nevertheless having a good year. We have seen great results from our online sales and we have seen significant growth in our CD business mainly as a result of the termination of our long-term partnership with Ingram." Looking to the future he said: "We will move rapidly to expand the services we are able to offer all our primary constituencies-publishers, booksellers, libraries-and in doing so we will continue to leverage the considerable investment made by Reed in the last several years. I am very optimistic about the commitment of our employees and CIG to support our plans for future expansion."
McGinty said: "This is...