If not corrected we are only too happy to publish other points of view on House Butter… & can this acquisition rumour have shreds of truth?
On learning of Google Scholar’s entry into the USA legal information market…. we wrote last week
Information Today has put together a great report which highlights internal politics at Reed and this interesting fact ...Much is rightly made of the workflow solutions offered by both Elsevier and LexisNexis. Significantly, these two divisions contributed 68% of the company’s overall revenue in 2008... The suggestion by one blog earlier this week ?that Lexis could be hived off to West might make sense if they got rid of content and stuck with the workflow solutions.. that’s where the money seems to be coming from
One of our trusted sources on all thing Lexis and legal publishing in North America has subsequently contacted us and made the following pertinent point..
I think that if you checked you would find that legal information is a workflow solution at Lexis. After solutions became the rage, most everything was redefined, ?or at least “retitled” as a solution, making nonsense of the whole concept of solutions.
HOB also mentioned the rumour that TR could be looking at Lexis as an acquisition possibility..and our source dropped the following bombshell; which we find fascinating as Bloomberg are so new to the sector.
If the following is indeed true. The fact? that Bloomberg are interested in Lexis’s UK operation will? make for a very interesting next 18 months.
Our source says:
As for takeovers of Lexis legal information, there are rumours that Bloomberg in the UK that is chasing Lexis, but not West. They are not substantiated. Has the Google announcement regarding links to the LIIs in different countries enhanced Bloomberg law’s taste for Lexis?
West on the other hand has no interest or reason to acquire Lexis. The content duplicates one another and would be a massive waste of money in most markets where the companies operate, although it would strengthen West in the UK.
Major changes in online information will never cease. The owners view them as investment portfolios and consequently as being something to buy or sell according to their assessment of the value of the portfolio. The old days of family commitment to a business are gone.
