The London-based publisher of the scientific journal Nature (much quoted on Digital Journal’s science pages) is to merge with one of the largest science publishers in the world, according to the two firms’ parent companies.
Macmillan Science and Education, which publishes the renowned Scientific American as well as Nature, has announced that it will merge with Berlin-based Springer Science+Business Media, the publisher of such journals as the Journal of Molecular Medicine, Clinical Pharmacokinetics, and Acta Neuropathologica. The deal was brokered between Holtzbrinck Publishing Group, owner of Macmillan, and private equity firm BC Partners, which bought out Springer in 2013.
The merger will need to pass European competition regulators.
According to Claudio Aspesi, a media analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. in London, speaking with the website Nature, said that “the deal makes a lot of sense for both sides.” Aspesi goes on to say: “From BC Partners’ perspective, there were a lot of questions about what they could do with Springer when they bought it, since much cost-cutting had already been done. Now we know how you can add value to that deal — add the most prestigious journals in the world. For Holtzbrinck, the idea is presumably that they get additional scale for Macmillan, which will give additional funds for any new plans.”
Springer is a massive publisher, with around 3,000 titles. Macmillan, on the other hand, has 160 journals in its catalog. However, this range includes the celebrated journal Nature. It is for this prize item that the deal was struck.
