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James Robinson, Academic publishing house Springer put up for sale in teeth of recession, The Guardian, March 26, 2009. Excerpt:
Comment. Springer is the world's second largest TA journal publisher, after Elsevier. But since buying BMC last October, it's also the world's largest OA publisher. The fact that Springer's owners have been private equity companies didn't stop Springer from buying BMC, a profitable company which probably had lower profit margins than the rest of Springer. That is, profit maximizing didn't squeeze out this form of diversification. If that's a clue, then Springer could be bought by another private equity firm without adding anti-OA pressure to the new BMC division. Could. But while wise management will still want to prepare for an OA future, an area in which Springer now leads the other commercial giants, anyone who buys the company during an economic meltdown might have to think about slashing and divestments. Springer's current CEO, Derk Haank, said that "open access publishing [is] a sustainable part of STM publishing, and not an ideological crusade." But the new owner may want a new CEO. Update. Reuters adds some new detail:
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