John Wiley & Sons has acquired the higher educational publisher Harlan Davidson, Inc., which is a family-owned business based in Illinois. HDI was started in 1976 and is now run by the late founder's son, Andrew Davidson who will remain with the company. The company publishes mainly history textbooks for use in two and four-year colleges. Wiley said the deal will strengthen its push into specific history sub channels, such as world history and state history.
Speaking to the acquisition, Steve D. Smith, v-p and books publishing director for social sciences & humanities at Wiley, said: "Harlan Davidson’s audience and focus is a perfect complement to our own. We already have relationships with a significant proportion of HDI’s authors and feel that this is a natural extension of our work in the field of history to date." The acquistion involves 10 series with about 200 titles and under Andrew Davidson’s direction, HDI currently has 20 new titles under development for the next three years, as well as ten revisions. The Harlan Davidson brand will continue in the near term with long range plans still being worked out.
