In a huge deal in the library and information publishing world, London-based Clarivate has agreed to acquire ProQuest for $5.3 billion. The purchase price includes $4.0 billion in cash plus $1.3 billion in equity. Clarivate is buying ProQuest from the private equity firm Cambridge Information Group, and other partners including Atairos.
The acquisition is expected to be completed in the third quarter, at which time Andrew Snyder, chairman of ProQuest and CEO of Cambridge Information Group, will become vice chairman of the Clarivate board.
Based in Ann Arbor, ProQuest is an information and technology company that delivers content and technology solutions to over 25,000 academic, corporate and research organizations in more than 150 countries, including services like ProQuest One Academic, Ebook Central, and ProQuest Dissertations & Thesis. The company had 2020 revenue of $876 million and earnings of $250 million. Following the acquisition, the combined Clarivate's total revenue will be between $1.79 billion and $1.84 billion.
In a release, company officials said the combination of ProQuest content and products with Clarivate's Web of Science platform would create "a leader in research and innovation information and workflow" solutions across colleges and universities, research institutions, and corporations. "Through this combination, ProQuest will be enabled to better serve the evolving needs of our customers by providing end-to-end solutions to our customers faster than we could on our own as well as expanding our global reach beyond our current capabilities," Matti Shem Tov, CEO of ProQuest, said in a statement.
