Thomson Corp., owner of the Westlaw legal-research and First Call financial data services, is selling 54 business publications including the Bond Buyer and American Banker for $350 million to buyout firm Investcorp SA.
The unit being sold had 2003 sales of $170 million, Thomson said in a statement. Investcorp’s purchase is its first in the media industry and the company said it plans to expand Thomson Media through acquisitions.
Thomson Chief Executive Richard Harrington is moving the company out of newspaper and magazine publishing to sell electronic information by subscription. It has spent more than $1 billion this year, buying companies including TradeWeb Group LLC, an electronic bond-trading service, and CCBN, a financial information provider.
“It closes the book on that chapter in their corporate history,” said Anthony Hammill, an analyst at AIC Ltd., which held about 9.26 million Thomson shares as of June. “Focusing on electronic (information) is the way for them to go because it’s a higher margin business. You don’t require the printing and delivery costs.”
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Editor’s Note: Thomson Media owns and publishes Collections & Credit Risk, Credit Card Management and Card Technology magazines.
