Thomson Corporation

Thomson Corporation was one of the world's largest information companies. It was established in 1989 following a merger between International Thomson Organization and Thomson Newspapers.[1] In 2008, it purchased Reuters Group to form Thomson Reuters. The Thomson Corporation was active in financial services, healthcare sectors, law, science and technology research, as well as tax and accounting sectors. The company operated through five segments (2007 onwards): Thomson Financial, Thomson Healthcare, Thomson Legal, Thomson Scientific and Thomson Tax & Accounting.

Until 2007, Thomson was also a major worldwide provider of higher education textbooks, academic information solutions and reference materials. On 26 October 2006, Thomson announced the proposed sale of its Thomson Learning assets. In May 2007, Thomson Learning was acquired by Apax Partners and subsequently renamed Cengage Learning in July. The Thomson Learning brand was used to the end of August 2007.[3]

History

The Thomson Corporation grew from a single Canadian newspaper, the Timmins Daily Press, acquired in 1934 by Roy Thomson (later to become 1st Baron Thomson of Fleet), into a global media concern. Thomson acquired his first non-Canadian newspaper, the Independent of St. Petersburg, Florida, in 1952. He was told by the UK Government that to qualify for a peerage, in keeping with other press barons in London, he would have to reside in the UK.[5] Accordingly, he moved to Edinburgh and invited newspaper owners to sell to him. In this expansion in the United Kingdom the first to come forward and be bought was The Scotsman in 1953. He had no experience of television but saw the profits it made in the US and successfully founded Scottish Television in 1957,[6] locating its headquarters and studios in the Theatre Royal, Glasgow.[7] He founded the Thomson Organization in 1959. In the 1960s, Thomson's UK publishing realm expanded to include Thomson Publication (UK), a consumer magazine and book publishing house, and The Times. In 1965, Thomson Newspapers, Ltd. was formed as a publicly traded company in Canada.

Roy Thomson's prolific endeavours in publishing earned him the hereditary title Lord Thomson of Fleet in 1964. Thomson's interests moved beyond publishing with the creation of Thomson Travel and acquisition of Britannia Airways in 1965 and 1971,[8] and a foray into a consortium exploring the North Sea for oil and gas. Thomson used its oil profits to buy small newspapers in the United States, starting with the acquisition of Brush-Moore Newspapers in 1967 for $72 million, at the time the largest sale of newspapers.[9] By the end of the 1970s, Thomson Newspapers' circulation in the United States had surpassed the 1 million mark. In 1974, it was rumored to be planning a takeover of Speidel Newspapers.[10] The Thomson Organization was reorganised into the International Thomson Organization in 1978 in order to move its operating base from Britain to Canada, so that it would not be subject to British monopolies legislation, foreign‐exchange controls and dividend limitation.[11] The International Thomson Organization and Thomson Newspapers merged in 1989, creating the Thomson Corporation. Over the years, the company has withdrawn from its holdings in the oil and gas business, the travel industry and department stores.[12]

When Kenneth Thomson took over from his father Roy in 1976, the company was worth about $500 million. At Kenneth's death in June 2006, the company was valued at about $29.3 billion.[12]

Transition to business information

In 1978, the acquisition of Wadsworth Publishing provided Thomson with its first entry into specialised information, college textbooks and professional books.[12] (In 2007, Thomson Learning, including the Wadsworth imprint, was sold and renamed as Cengage Learning.)[13]

Starting in the mid-1990s, Thomson invested further in specialised information services (but this time providing them in digital format) and began selling off its newspapers. That was about the time Richard J. Harrington, an accountant, became chief executive officer of the company. One of the first moves came when Thomson spent $3.4 billion to acquire the West Publishing Company, a legal information provider in Eagan, Minnesota.[12]

In recent years, Thomson provided much of the specialised information content the world's financial, legal, research and medical organizations rely on every day to make business-critical decisions and drive innovation. While it remained a publishing company, early and aggressive investment in electronic delivery had become a key company goal.[12]

type	Public
products	Books, publishing
foundation	1989‡R1R‡
location	Stamford, Connecticut, U.S.
key people	David Thomson (chairman)
num employees	38,000
revenue	US$6.641 billion (2006)‡R2R‡
net income	US$1.120 billion (2006)
defunct	April 17, 2008
fate	Merger with Reuters Group
predecessors	International Thomson Organization Thomson Newspapers
successor	Thomson Reuters
divisions	Thomson Financial Thomson Scientific Thomson Tax & Accounting Thomson Healthcare Thomson Legal Thomson Learning (until 2007)

Thomson Corporation

History

Transition to business information

Brands

Restatements

Corporate governance

Further reading

External links

References