John Wiley & Sons had a solid third quarter, with both sales and earnings up over the comparable period in fiscal 2019. For the quarter ended January 31, 2020, revenue rose 4% over last year’s third quarter, to $467.1 million, and net income increased 1.4%, to $35.4 million.
Sales were up in all three of Wiley’s operating groups. In its academic and professional learning division, sales increased 1% over the third quarter of fiscal 2019, to $178.3 million. Wiley attributed the gain to contributions from the recently acquired zyBooks and Knewton, which added $6 million to revenue and “modest organic growth” in higher education publishing. Excluding the zyBooks and Knewton acquisitions, revenue declined 2%, Wiley said.
Revenue in the research publishing and platforms group increased 3% in the quarter, to $233.5 million. Wiley said the increase was primarily driven by growth in open access. The education services division increased 20%, to $55.3 million, led by organic growth of 10% and the one-month contribution from mthree, which was acquired on January 1, of $5 million.
"We saw good momentum across Wiley this quarter," Brian Napack, Wiley’s president and CEO, said in a prepared statement. "The Research and Education Services businesses continued to deliver solid revenue growth and improved profitability, while the pace of decline in book publishing moderated. Our focus on high-demand disciplines and careers continued to gain traction while important new client agreements, partnerships and targeted M&A accelerated momentum in key areas such as open science and career-focused education."
For the first nine months of fiscal 2020, revenue at the company rose 3.7%, to $1.36 billion. Net income fell to $83.7 million, from $105 million, in the comparable period in fiscal 2019.
