30 September 1999 - Chadwyck-Healey was acquired today by Bell & Howell Company (NYSE: BHW), a leading global provider of solutions for information access and distribution.
After running the company for 26 years, the founder and chairman Sir Charles Chadwyck-Healey, decided to accept an offer which he felt offered the best opportunity for the company to expand in the next century. "I am pleased that Bell & Howell is the buyer of Chadwyck-Healey," he explained. "It is the oldest and most respected electronic publisher in the library market, and under Bell & Howell ownership, Chadwyck-Healey will consolidate its position as the major player in the U.K. and the rest of Europe. We're working to ensure a smooth transition that will not affect any of our current relationships with customers or publishing partners".
The Chadwyck-Healey Group, which includes offices in the USA and Spain, now comes under the umbrella of Bell & Howell Information & Learning and will be a strategic base from which Bell & Howell can develop its international business.
"We are pleased to have Chadwyck-Healey join the Bell & Howell family," said Jim Roemer, CEO, Chairman and President of Bell & Howell. "Strategically, this acquisition will give Bell & Howell a competitive edge by adding valuable content that would not otherwise be available. The humanities and social sciences information will perfectly complement our own holdings and balance our depth of content in business and general reference databases."
Joe Reynolds, who heads Bell & Howell's Information and Learning business, added, "The prospect of combining our rich content from ProQuest, our Internet service, with Chadwyck-Healey's vast database resources is very exciting to us and should enable us to develop some tremendous new curriculum products, especially in humanities, literature and social studies. We'll be poised to better serve emerging marketplaces with deep content and innovative delivery systems."
Senior executives from the US offices are currently working with Chadwyck-Healey's managers and plans for the integration of the companies are already well advanced. "We're very excited about the synergies which this opportunity offers us", explained Joe Reynolds, "and we're all keen to bring the benefits to our customers, both old and new, as soon as possible. Chadwyck-Healey has established itself as a leader in delivering high-quality publications and our customers should continue to expect the same high levels of service in the future".
Except for the historical information and discussions contained herein, statements contained in this release may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors, including without limitation, decreases in funding for Internet access as well as overall acceptance and usage of the Internet in the education and library markets, the willingness of parents to purchase educational products for home use, decreases or shifts in mail volumes, changes in the business services market, customer Year 2000 issues and concerns that could impact their purchase and investment decisions, and general economic conditions, all of which could cause actual results to differ materially, and such other risks as discussed in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Bell & Howell (NYSE: BHW), headquartered in Skokie, IL, is a leading information solutions and services provider to industries worldwide. In each of its businesses, the company transforms information through software and services, helping its customers operate more effectively and efficiently. Additional information on Bell & Howell Company can be found at www.bellhowell.com.
Bell & Howell Information and Learning (formerly UMI) collects, organizes, and distributes information worldwide to researchers, faculty, and students in libraries and schools. Users access periodicals, newspapers, dissertations, out-of-print books, and other scholarly information from more than 8,000 publishers worldwide through ProQuest, Bell & Howell's Web-based online information system, and with UMI microform and print reference products. For more information about Bell & Howell Information and Learning, call 800-521-0600 (U.S. and Canada) or 734-761-4700, or visit www.bellhowell.infolearning.com.
