What Next? Part 1
Posted On May 23 2007Someone once called me a library provocateur. I much prefer that to rabble-rouser. Here are a few recent thoughts meant to both provoke and rouse the rabble. Last week I asked why consolidation in the library vendor market is such a bad thing. Librarians typically don’t like consolidation. It happens so much in the publisher arena that we fear one monolithic beast to whom all scholars feed the products of their labor. We fear that the beast will refuse to regurgitate on demand, instead requiring huge sums of money to let that wealth of content out again. Librarians and scholars …
Thomson Sells and Buys
Posted On May 16 2007If you thought the world of Mergers & Acquisitions was hard to follow in the library systems marketplace, well buckle up for content providers. The Thomson Corporation has sold off its assets in Thomson Learning to Apax Partners and OMERS Capital Partners, for a total of about $7.75 billion in cash. (I love seeing “in cash.” . . . “Hey, can you break a trillion? I left my billions in my other wallet.”) The transaction includes Thomson Gale, Wadsworth, Delmar Learning, Brooks/Cole, and South-Western, and comes as no surprise since the intent was announced last fall. Details of the plan …
Ex Libris Gets SASsy
Posted On May 8 2007My father would have called that title two-thirds of a pun. I will let you extrapolate that one yourselves. Ex Libris Group announced today that Robert Mercer has been appointed president of the Ex Libris Group North American subsidiary, effective immediately. Mercer was most recently a regional vice- president and general manager at SAS Institute, Inc. Mercer will replace Dan Trajman who joined Ex Libris in March 2004. Trajman will stay on in a consultative role through 2007. “I am excited to be joining such a creative, forward-looking company with a large, active customer base,” noted Mercer. “I have been …