Library Technology Guides

Nonprofit Annual Reviews Becomes Strategic Partner. Annual Reviews has become Skilltype's newest strategic partner through a minority investment. Similarly to Skilltype's other investors, Annual Reviews supports the development and training of information professionals. This prepares them for an exciting and fulfilling future. [Full Announcement].

Biomedical Publisher Future Science Group joins Taylor & Francis. Taylor & Francis announced the addition of Future Science Group, publisher of medical, biotechnological and scientific research. As well as bringing a portfolio of cutting-edge journals and digital hubs, FSG's leading publishing solutions program will enable Taylor & Francis to offer researchers and medical communication planners a host of additional services. Taylor & Francis now becomes the fourth largest publisher of pharma-funded research, with the addition of 32 peer-reviewed FSG journals and five digital hubs. These complement the existing range of over 340 Taylor & Francis medical and healthcare journals, including the Expert Collection, which is the world's largest series of review journals in research, development and clinical medicine. [Full Announcement].

Research Solutions announces acquisition of scite. Research Solutions, a trusted partner providing cloud-based workflow solutions to accelerate research for R&D-driven organizations, announced their acquisition of scite, an award-winning search and discovery platform that leverages AI to increase the discoverability and evaluation of research. The acquisition of scite further enhances Research Solutions' product offerings and provides cross-selling opportunities to scite's consistently growing B2C customer base of approximately 21,000 active subscribers, as well as its diverse B2B customer base of corporate entities, leading academic institutions, and government agencies. [Full Announcement].

Blackstone to acquire Civica. Blackstone, the world's largest alternative asset manager, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Civica from current Civica owner, Partners Group AG. Blackstone, the world's largest alternative asset manager, will acquire Civica during a particularly buoyant period for the company. The company has enjoyed over 21 years of year-on-year growth across its global markets, with more than 6,000 customers now using its software. [Full Announcement].

AI for academia: Digital Science acquires Writefull to empower researchers and publishers. Digital Science announced it has acquired the AI-based academic language service Writefull, which assists users worldwide with all aspects of their scholarly writing. Writefull's AI language models are trained on billions of sentences taken from millions of journal articles. Matched with a firm commitment to data privacy, this means its models offer unparalleled assistance to users in academic writing, paraphrasing, copy editing and revisions. [Full Announcement].

Acquisition marks joining of two independent academic publishers. Global independent academic publisher Sage has acquired IOS Press, an independent publisher founded in Amsterdam in 1987 that specializes in health, life, and computer sciences. With this move, Sage acquires nearly 100 journals and a frontlist of 70 plus books each year covering subjects such as neuroscience, medical informatics, cancer research, artificial intelligence (AI), data science, and the semantic web. The acquisition marks significant growth in Sage's open access program with the addition of more than 20 fully OA journals. It also expands core subject areas for Sage, such as psychology and engineering, and marks an investment in new areas such as AI and image processing. [Full Announcement].

BibliU acquires Texas Book Company to deliver and innovate for higher education students, faculty and administrators across the US. EdTech innovator BibliU announced the acquisition of Texas Book Company, a privately held company in Texas and an industry leader in delivering affordable learning materials to higher education institutions across the US. This acquisition builds on BibliU's innovative digital-first Universal Learning offering, an equitable access program that provides cost-effective day-one availability of course materials to college students. Texas Book Company's exceptional record for delivering campus store services allows BibliU to expand Universal Learning further into Universal Learning Plus, a combined offering for campus store management and digital content delivery. Alongside this acquisition, BibliU is expanding its digital-first portfolio by adding an Inclusive Access (IA) model to its offerings. Both models are designed to provide affordable digital course materials on day one. Institutions will now have the flexibility to choose an access program that best fits their needs. [Full Announcement].

Springer Nature expands its AI capability with acquisition of Slimmer AI's Science division. Springer Nature has signed a definitive agreement which will see the Netherlands' Slimmer AI's Science division join the company. Springer Nature and Slimmer AI have been working together since 2015. This latest acquisition follows that of protocols.io, a secure platform for developing and sharing reproducible methods, and the launch of Curie, Springer Nature's AI-powered scientific writing assistant. [Full Announcement].

Brill and De Gruyter to create leading academic publisher in the humanities. The transaction creates the leading academic publisher in the Humanities and presents a unique opportunity to accelerate organic growth and achieve necessary scale. With pro forma combined revenues of around EUR 134 million and 750 employees, the combination will be well-positioned to offer the best possible service and infrastructure to its communities. The combination will jointly publish well over 3,500 books and 800 journals per year. The enlarged scale will accelerate a transition to Open Access, finance investments in technology for end-to-end workflows and a cutting-edge market-facing (content) platform. Furthermore, it will enable the company to face market challenges, allow more effective sales & marketing and increase the ability to attract and retain talent. The combination of two centuries-old publishing houses will be branded De Gruyter Brill, signaling the importance of the strong heritage and family background of both companies. [Full Announcement].

PTFS Europe welcomes ByWater Solutions as a new shareholder.. PTFS Europe announces retirement of shareholders Nick Dimant and Ian Bays. Nick Dimant, one of the original founders of PTFS Europe, and Ian Bays are retiring as shareholders and Directors of PTFS Europe with immediate effect. Their outstanding shareholding has been purchased by ByWater Solutions. Brendan Gallagher and Nathan Curulla, co-owners of ByWater Solutions, are also joining the board as Directors. This provides new growth opportunities for both organisations and assures a strong future for the companies. [Full Announcement].

Francisco Partners joins forces with H.I.G. Capital to acquire and invest in RBmedia. Francisco Partners, a leading global investment firm, specializing in technology and media-focused businesses, announced that it has partnered with H.I.G. Capital and RBmedia's management to complete the acquisition of RBmedia from KKR. With this investment, H.I.G. and Francisco Partners will support RBmedia, the leading audiobook publisher in the world, in the continued growth of the company's vast catalog of spoken content and powerful distribution network that reaches millions of global listeners. Founded in 1979 and headquartered in Landover, Maryland, RBmedia's award-winning catalog of over 66,000 titles is available through more than 50 digital listening platforms, including Audible, Spotify, Apple, Google Play, Scribd, Storytel, OverDrive, Hoopla, and others. Over the last five years, the company has doubled its catalog of content to deliver diverse options to its listeners. [Full Announcement].

Crossref acquires Retraction Watch data and opens it for the scientific community. The Center for Scientific Integrity, the organisation behind the Retraction Watch blog and database, and Crossref, the global infrastructure underpinning research communications, both not-for-profits, announced that the Retraction Watch database has been acquired by Crossref and made a public resource. An agreement between the two organisations will allow Retraction Watch to keep the data populated on an ongoing basis and always open, alongside publishers registering their retraction notices directly with Crossref. [Full Announcement].

The American Chemical Society acquires ChronosHub, an open access management platform. The American Chemical Society announced that ChronosHub is joining ACS as an independent subsidiary working alongside ACS Publications to enhance the publication experience for researchers. As an ardent supporter of authors and open science, it was a natural fit for ACS to invest in ChronosHub — an innovative open access management platform that streamlines publishing workflows and ensures effective collaboration between all stakeholders. Together, ACS and ChronosHub will develop a new state-of-the-art, OA-friendly publishing experience that will simplify the complexities of today's scientific publishing environment. [Full Announcement].

Springshare acquires Patron Point: acquisition will accelerate the adoption of Patron Point software as the go-to marketing automation platform for libraries. Springshare, a library-centric SaaS vendor with 7,500+ library customers in 106 countries, announced the acquisition of Patron Point, a leading marketing automation and engagement solution for public libraries. This acquisition brings together two forward-thinking organizations and teams, fully dedicated to helping libraries delight their users and engage with the communities they serve. Springshare will invest significant resources to enhance the Patron Point platform and expand the Patron Point staff to help the company continue excelling and impressing their customers. [Full Announcement].

LAC Group. HBR Consulting, LAC Group, and Wilson Allen Relaunch as Harbor. HBR Consulting, LAC Group, and Wilson Allen announced the launch of Harbor, an expert services provider across strategy, legal technology, operations, and intelligence. Following the integration of the three companies and several key acquisitions, Harbor comes to market as a single entity serving law firms, corporations, and their law departments. With 650+ strategists, technologists, and specialists around the world, Harbor is unique in the depth, breadth, and scope of its expertise, as well as its focus on the legal industry. [Full Announcement].

Thomson Reuters completes acquisition of Casetext, Inc.. Thomson Reuters Corporation announced that it has closed on its previously announced acquisition of Casetext, Inc., a provider of technology for legal professionals, for a purchase price of $650 million in cash. Founded in 2013, Casetext uses advanced AI and machine learning to build technology for legal professionals, creating solutions that help them work more efficiently and provide higher-quality representation to more clients. Casetext's customers include more than 10,000 law firms and corporate legal departments. Its key products include CoCounsel, an AI legal assistant powered by GPT-4 that delivers document review, legal research memos, deposition preparation, and contract analysis in minutes. [Full Announcement].

KKR to acquire Simon & Schuster from Paramount Global for $1.62 Billion. Paramount Global announced the signing of a definitive agreement pursuant to which KKR will acquire Simon & Schuster for $1.62 billion in an all-cash transaction. After the closing of the transaction, Simon & Schuster will become a standalone private company and will continue to be led by Jonathan Karp, President and CEO and Dennis Eulau, COO and CFO of Simon & Schuster. [Full Announcement].

Research Solutions acquires ResoluteAI to transform AI-powered innovation workflows. Research Solutions, a trusted partner providing cloud-based workflow solutions to accelerate research for R&D-driven organizations, announced its acquisition of ResoluteAI, an advanced search platform aimed at equipping organizations with search, discovery, analysis, and knowledge management tools powered by AI and NLP technologies. ResoluteAI's state-of-the-art integrations of taxonomies, ontologies, and knowledge graph technology, together with the latest Large Language Models ("LLM"), make information discovery and retrieval highly efficient. [Full Announcement].

Springer Nature continues open research drive with acquisition of protocols.io. Springer Nature, the world's leading publisher of protocols, has acquired protocols.io - a secure platform for developing and sharing reproducible methods. Scientific advancement depends on data credibility and work that can be verified, built upon and reproduced. Sharing all elements of research, including data, methods and materials, and even negative results, makes research more efficient, enables reproducibility and therefore builds trust in science. Studies show that lack of awareness of existing work or negative results leads to unnecessary duplication and could waste up to €26 billion in Europe alone. By laying out detailed step-by-step instructions for research methods, aiming to standardise the process, ensure accuracy of results and enabling research to be reproduced, protocols have a vital role to play in addressing this. With protocols.io joining Springer Nature's leading protocol offering, researchers will now have the option to make their protocols openly available on the protocols.io platform as well as publishing them in peer-reviewed publications. [Full Announcement].

Tuition.io acquires Wiley's Tuition Manager business. Tuition.io, a leading education assistance benefits provider, has acquired Wiley's Tuition Manager business, which enables employers to offer a range of tuition assistance benefits to their workforces. Terms are undisclosed. The acquisition is the culmination of a successful relationship between Tuition.io, Wiley and HostedHR dating back more than four years. It continues Tuition.io's growth as a leading Education Assistance service provider, allowing Tuition Manager customers to take full advantage of Tuition.io's modern, highly configurable and customizable platform to offer a wide range of differentiated benefits to their workforces. [Full Announcement].