Last month, I penned a few lines on these pages describing how Canada's The Thomson Corporation
Last Thursday, Reed announced that it had agreed to acquire privately held Seisint Inc., a Florida-based provider and "dataminer" of public records operating in the risk management sphere, for $745 million in cash (net of Seisint's own cash). The acquisition will increase revenues at Reed's Risk Management subdivision of its LexisNexis business by about 50%. By the end of the first year after acquisition, Seisint should already be dropping pennies to Reed's bottom line.
At present, there are six big-league players in the international professional publishing arena. Overall, Thomson and Reed are neck and neck for first place in this pack, both having annual revenues in the $7.5 billion range. Thomson's claim to fame is that it is the biggest publisher in the legal sphere; Reed's, that it is the biggest publisher in the scientific sphere.
As for the others, third place for overall annual revenues goes to England's Pearson PLC
I am sure that the third through sixth companies are fine companies in their own rights. But what is really fascinating is watching the two leaders, Thomson and Reed, jockey for the title of worldwide uber-publisher. It's like observing two grand masters play an elegant game of chess: Thomson sees Reed building up a position of strength in scientific publishing and moves to undermine it by buying Information Holdings. Yet, before Thomson can even complete its maneuver, Reed is already counterattacking against Thomson's advanced position in legal publishing.
Who will win the game remains unknown. But it's certainly a joy to watch the masters at work.
Fool contributor Rich Smith has no interest in any of the companies mentioned in this article. The Fool has a disclosure policy .
