Wolters Kluwer
 |
|
| Naamloze vennootschap | |
| Traded as | Euronext: WKL |
| Industry | Publishing, information services |
| Founded | 1836 |
| Headquarters | Alphen aan den Rijn, Netherlands |
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Key people
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Nancy McKinstry (CEO) |
| Products | Health, corporate services, finance, tax, accounting, law and regulatory software, services, workflow tools and publications |
| Revenue | €3.7 billion (2014) |
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Number of employees
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19,000 |
| Website | www.wolterskluwer.com |
Wolters Kluwer N.V. (Euronext: WKL) is a global information services company. The company is headquartered in Alphen aan den Rijn, Netherlands. Wolters Kluwer in its current form was founded in 1987 with a merger between Kluwer Publishers and Wolters Samson. The company serves legal, business, tax, accounting, finance, audit, risk, compliance, and healthcare markets. It operates in over 150 countries.Nancy McKinstry serves as chief executive officer of the company.
Jan-Berend Wolters founded the Schoolbook publishing house in Groningen, Netherlands in 1836. In 1858, the Noordhoff publishing house was founded alongside the Schoolbook publishing house. The two publishing houses merged in 1968. Wolters-Noordhoff merged with Information and Communications Union (ICU) in 1972 and took the name ICU. ICU changed its name to Wolters-Samson in 1983. The company began serving foreign law firms and multinational companies in China in 1985. In 1987, Elsevier, the largest publishing house in the Netherlands, announced its intentions to buy up Kluwer’s stock. Kluwer merged with Wolters-Samson to fend off Elsevier’s take-over bid and formed Wolters Kluwer. The merger made Wolters Kluwer the second largest publishing house in the Netherlands.
After the merger, Wolters Kluwer began expanding internationally with the purchase of IPSOA Editore, Kieser Verlag, Technipublicaciones and Tele Consulte in 1989. By the end of the year, Wolters Kluwer expanded its presence to Spain, West Germany and France. The company also launched LEX, its legal information system, in Poland. In 1989, 44% of the company’s revenue was earned in foreign markets.
The following year, Wolters Kluwer purchased J. B. Lippincott & Co. from HarperCollins. The company acquired Liber, a Swedish publishing company, in 1993. The following year it established its first Eastern European subsidiary, IURA Edition, in Bratislava, Slovakia. The company acquired Jugend & Volk, Dalian, Fateco Fîrlag and Juristfîrlaget, Deutscher Kommunal-Verlag Dr. Naujoks & Behrendt and Colex Data in 1995. Wolters Kluwer was operating in 16 countries and had approximately 8000 employees by the end of that year.
In 1996, Wolters Kluwer purchased CCH Inc., a tax and business materials publisher, for $1.9 billion. The purchase assisted in expanding the company’s business in Asia because of CCH Inc.’s involvement in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, and Hong Kong. It also purchased Little, Brown and Company’s medical and legal division that year. Waverly, Inc., Ovid Technologies, Inc. and Plenum Publishing Corporation were acquired in 1998 with the intention of developing Wolters Kluwer’s medical and scientific publishing industry.
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Wikipedia