London-based Clarivate has completed its $5.3 billion purchase of ProQuest. First announced in May, the deal was held up slightly this summer when the Federal Trade Commission made a second request for information as part of its review of the purchase.
Based in Ann Arbor, ProQuest is a leading global software, content, data and analytics provider, while Clarivate offers an array of web services. In a statement, Jerre Stead, executive chairman and CEO, Clarivate, said the purchase gives Clarivate an opportunity to offer ProQuest’s multi-disciplinary curated content with Clarivate’s software solutions to better serve its customers at governments, corporations, academia and public libraries worldwide.
The combined company, Stead noted, will have over 11,000 employees serving 45,000 customers in over 200 countries. As a standalone company, Clarivate expects to have 2021 revenue of between $1.80 billion and $1.84 billion, a figure it expects to rise to $2.87 billion to $2.93 billion in 2022 with the addition of ProQuest. Earnings are projected to increase from $795 million to $825 million in 2021 to $1.21 billion to $1.26 billion next year.
The merger was opposed by the advocacy group SPARC, which represents more than 240 academic and research library members.
In a statement, Heather Joseph, SPARC executive director, said the approval of the deal was “deeply disappointing,” adding that the merger “pushes this market to the brink of a monopoly and tilts control of the research ecosystem further toward the largest commercial players—and away from the best interests of the research community. The result will be fewer options—and ultimately, higher prices—for libraries.”
Joseph urged the FTC “to closely monitor the impact of the merger and actively reassess the need for intervention as new information emerges.”
