As Wiley looks to move forward after completing its wide-ranging divestiture program, the company reported good sales gains in its ongoing businesses for the second quarter ended October 31, 2024. Research revenue was up 2%, to $262 million, over the comparable quarter last year, and sales in Wiley’s learning group rose 8%, to $162 million. Total sales, including revenue from divested business, fell 13% from last year’s second quarter. Operating profit, however, increased 39%, to $64.1 million, due to various cost-saving measures.
Looking in more detail at its ongoing businesses, Wiley reported that the 2% increase in its research division was due to growing interest in its gold open access program and “modest growth” in institutional models. Those gains were offset by declines in print and licensing revenue.
Wiley reported that the 8% increase in its learning sector was driven by a 11% increase in the professional division, led by higher sellthrough at its retail accounts. The academic division saw a 5% sales increase, led by sales of zyBooks digital courseware and higher revenue from inclusive access and licensing. The division also reported $4 million in one-time AI licensing revenue.
In its previous quarters, Wiley announced two AI licensing deals with a high tech firm worth a total of $44 million. In the current quarterly report, Wiley CEO Matthew Kissner said that the company “continues to see interest from tech companies and other corporate LLM developers for our high-value content and data to train and commercialize AI models.”
