Wolters-Kluwer
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Wolters Kluwer N.V. () is a Dutch information services company. The company is headquartered in
Alphen aan den Rijn Alphen aan den Rijn (; en, "Alphen upon Rhine" or "Alphen on the Rhine") is a city and municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. The city is situated on the banks of the river Oude Rijn (Old Rhine), where the r ...
, Netherlands (Global) and
Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
, United States (corporate). Wolters Kluwer in its current form was founded in 1987 with a merger between Kluwer Publishers and Wolters Samsom. The company serves legal, business, tax, accounting, finance, audit, risk, compliance, and healthcare markets. It operates in over 150 countries.


History


Early history

Jan-Berend Wolters founded the Schoolbook publishing house in
Groningen, Netherlands Groningen (; gos, Grunn or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen province in the Netherlands. The ''capital of the north'', Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of the northern part of t ...
, in 1836. In 1858, the Noordhoff publishing house was founded alongside the Schoolbook publishing house. The two publishing houses merged in 1968. Wolters-Noordhoff merged with Information and Communications Union (ICU) in 1972 and took the name ICU. ICU changed its name to Wolters-Samsom in 1983. The company began serving foreign law firms and multinational companies in China in 1985. In 1987,
Elsevier Elsevier () is a Dutch academic publishing company specializing in scientific, technical, and medical content. Its products include journals such as ''The Lancet'', ''Cell'', the ScienceDirect collection of electronic journals, '' Trends'', th ...
, the largest publishing house in the Netherlands, announced its intentions to buy up Kluwer's stock. Kluwer merged with Wolters-Samsom to fend off Elsevier's take-over bid and formed Wolters Kluwer. The merger made Wolters Kluwer the second-largest publishing house in the Netherlands. After the merger, Wolters Kluwer began expanding internationally with the purchase of IPSOA Editore, Kieser Verlag, Technipublicaciones and Tele Consulte in 1989. By the end of the year, Wolters Kluwer expanded its presence to Spain, West Germany and France. The company also launched LEX, its legal information system, in Poland. In 1989, 44% of the company's revenue was earned in foreign markets.


1990s

The following year, Wolters Kluwer purchased J. B. Lippincott & Co. from
HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Cor ...
. The company acquired Liber, a Swedish publishing company, in 1993. The following year it established its first Eastern European subsidiary, IURA Edition, in
Bratislava, Slovakia Bratislava (, also ; ; german: Preßburg/Pressburg ; hu, Pozsony) is the capital and largest city of Slovakia. Officially, the population of the city is about 475,000; however, it is estimated to be more than 660,000 — approximately 140% of ...
. The company acquired Jugend & Volk, Dalian, Fateco Fîrlag and Juristfîrlaget, Deutscher Kommunal-Verlag Dr. Naujoks & Behrendt and Colex Data in 1995. Wolters Kluwer was operating in 16 countries and had approximately, 8000 employees by the end of that year. In 1992 Spain was added to the countries where the company has a presence. “Wolters Kluwer España” directed by Miguel Guibelalde, institutional director of the company. In 1994, Wolters Kluwer expanded its US legal business by acquiring
Prentice Hall Prentice Hall was an American major educational publisher owned by Savvas Learning Company. Prentice Hall publishes print and digital content for the 6–12 and higher-education market, and distributes its technical titles through the Safari B ...
Law & Business from
Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest publ ...
. In 1995, Wolters Kluwer acquired
CT Corporation CT, or the Corporation Trust Company, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Wolters Kluwer, a multi-national information services company based in the Netherlands with operations in more than 35 countries. CT Corporation is the largest registered age ...
. The following year, it purchased CCH Inc., a tax and business materials' publisher, for $1.9 billion. The purchase assisted in expanding the company's business in Asia because of CCH Inc.’s involvement in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, and Hong Kong. It also purchased Little, Brown and Company’s medical and legal division that year.
John Wiley & Son John Wiley & Sons, Inc., commonly known as Wiley (), is an American multinational publishing company founded in 1807 that focuses on academic publishing and instructional materials. The company produces books, journals, and encyclopedias, in p ...
's legal division was purchased in 1997. Waverly, Inc.,
Ovid Technologies Ovid Technologies, Inc. (or just Ovid for short), part of the Wolters Kluwer group of companies, provides access to online bibliographic databases, academic journals, and other products, chiefly in the area of health sciences. The National Library ...
, Inc. and Plenum Publishing Corporation were acquired in 1998 with the intention of developing Wolters Kluwer’s medical and scientific publishing industry.


2000s

In 2002, Wolters Kluwer sold Kluwer Academic Publishers to the private equity firms
Cinven Cinven is a global private equity firm founded in 1977, with offices in nine international locations in Guernsey, London, New York, Paris, Frankfurt, Milan, Luxembourg, Madrid, and Hong Kong that acquires Europe and United States based corporat ...
and
Candover Investments Candover Investments plc. was a British-based, private equity firm, specialising in arranging and leading large buyouts and buyins. Candover Investments is structured as an investment trust. On 31 August 2010, Candover announced that it would unw ...
. (It is now part of
Springer Springer or springers may refer to: Publishers * Springer Science+Business Media, aka Springer International Publishing, a worldwide publishing group founded in 1842 in Germany formerly known as Springer-Verlag. ** Springer Nature, a multinationa ...
). The company established its first three-year strategy to deliver sustained value to customers and shareholders in 2003. The
New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament House ...
Wolters Kluwer Health office opened in 2006. In 2017,
Wolters Kluwer Education Infinitas Learning is a Dutch educational publishing company. It was formed from Bridgepoint Capital's purchase of the educational division of Wolters Kluwer. Imprints The company issues books under the following imprints (brands): Current *No ...
was sold to
Bridgepoint Capital Bridgepoint Group plc is a British private investment company listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. History Bridgepoint was founded as NatWest Equity Partners, a private equity firm part of NatWest. ...
. In September 2008, Wolters Kluwer acquired
UpToDate UpToDate, Inc. is a company in the Wolters Kluwer Health division of Wolters Kluwer whose main product is UpToDate, a software system that is a point of care, point-of-care medical resource. The UpToDate system is an Evidence-based medicine, evide ...
, an evidence-based electronic clinical information resource. The following month, the company received a multi-year contract to provide prescription and patient-level data to the United States
Food and Drug Administration The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a List of United States federal agencies, federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is respon ...
. In 2009, Wolters Kluwer was named the “Best Place to Work” in Spain by the Great Place to Work Institute.


2010s - 2020s

Wolters Kluwer acquired FRSGlobal, financial regulatory reporting and risk management firm in September 2010. The acquisition enabled Wolters Kluwer to provide financial organizations comprehensive compliance and risk solutions. The company acquired SASGAS, a financial reporting software solutions provider, to the foreign and domestic bank market in China in October 2011. That December, Wolters Kluwer acquired Medknow, an open access publisher. Also in 2011, Wolters Kluwer sold its pharmaceutical industry-related Marketing and Publishing Service division to
Springer Science+Business Media Springer Science+Business Media, commonly known as Springer, is a German multinational publishing company of books, e-books and peer-reviewed journals in science, humanities, technical and medical (STM) publishing. Originally founded in 1842 in ...
, which led to a workforce reduction at its facility in
Ambler, Pennsylvania Ambler is a borough in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. It is located approximately 16 miles (26 km) north of the Center City Philadelphia. History Lenape The historical territory of the Lenni Lenape was in the Delaware River Valley, in a ...
, eventually leading to the site's closure in 2013. In 2012, Wolters Kluwer acquired Acclipse, an accounting software provider, and Finarch, an integrated finance and risk solutions. The company's health division tested technology to identify and treat sepsis that December. Wolters Kluwer acquired Health Language, a medical terminology management provider, in January 2013. In May 2013, it acquired Prosoft Tecnologia, a Brazilian provider of tax and accounting software. The company acquired CitizenHawk, an American online brand protection and global domain recovery specialist, in September 2013. That month, Wolters Kluwer acquired Svenson, an Austrian regulatory reporting solutions provider. The acquisition enabled both companies to assist Austrian banks and insurance companies in meeting national and international regulatory requirements. The company became the fifth participant in the AAISalliance, an arrangement of information providers that make their services available for member insurance companies of the
American Association of Insurance Services The American Association of Insurance Services (AAIS) is a national insurance advisory organization in the United States. Among other things, is one of the two major "rating bureaus" in the United States, along with the Insurance Services Office ...
(AAIS) in April 2014. In May 2014, Wolters Kluwer launched UpToDate, a clinical decision support resource, in the United Kingdom. UpToDate was launched throughout Western Europe a month later. Wolters Kluwer acquired Datacert, a Houston, Texas-based enterprise legal management software and services provider in April 2014. The company partnered with
Anhembi Morumbi University Universidade Anhembi Morumbi is a Brazilian private university located in São Paulo and member of the Anima Educação group. Ranked one of the top three private universities in the state of São Paulo, the university is one of the most prestig ...
, a private university in
São Paulo, Brazil SAO or Sao may refer to: Places * Sao civilisation, in Middle Africa from 6th century BC to 16th century AD * Sao, a town in Boussé Department, Burkina Faso * Saco Transportation Center (station code SAO), a train station in Saco, Maine, U.S ...
, to provide information and resources to healthcare students and professionals in June 2014. That month, the company's CCH eSign solution won the '' CPA Practice Advisor Magazine's'' 2014 Tax & Accounting Technology Innovation Award. The solution won the
Software and Information Industry Association The Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) is a trade association dedicated to the entertainment, consumer and business software industries. Established in 1984 as the Software Publishers Association (SPA), the SIIA took its new na ...
's “Best Enterprise Mobile Application” award that year. The company partnered with Broadridge Tax Services in August 2014 to facilitate tax reporting and reconciliation. In September, the company's UpToDate resource was released in Latin America. That month the company extended its partnership with the American
Internal Revenue Service The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting U.S. federal taxes and administering the Internal Revenue Code, the main body of the federal statutory ta ...
. 2014 marked the 15th year of their collaboration. In May 2016, the company acquired Enablon, a global provider of Environmental, Health, Safety & Sustainability and Operational Risk Management software and SaaS solutions. In 2017 Wolters Kluwer partnered with Skopos Labs to develop the Federal Developments Knowledge Center to help legal professionals stay up-to-date on actions by the President and Congress. In the United States, Wolters Kluwer's Legal & Regulatory Education (the education division of Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S.) published casebooks and legal textbooks through its Aspen Publisher's, Inc. marquee. In 2021, Transom Capital Group purchased the Education division for US$88 million, renaming the entire operation as the standalone Aspen Publishing. In June 2022, Wolters Kluwer signed and completed an agreement to acquire Level Programs S.L., a provider of legal practice management software in Spain.


Operations

Wolters Kluwer operated under four divisions as of 2013: Legal & Regulatory Solutions (sold to
Peninsula Business Services Peter Eric Done (born 1947) is an English billionaire businessman, the founder and group managing director of Peninsula Business Services, established in 1983. Done was born in Salford, Lancashire, England in February 1947. His wife is Anna Done ...
in 2017; Wolters Kluwer continued to operate a division named Legal & Regulatory U.S., which also held on to its Aspen Publisher's, Inc. marquee until 2021), Tax & Accounting, Health and the Governance, Risk & Compliance Division. The company is active in over 150 countries. Approximately 74% of the company's revenue came from online, software and services in 2013. The United States medical publishing business is run through Wolters Kluwer Health.


Sustainability

Wolters Kluwer is listed on the
Dow Jones Sustainability Index The Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) launched in 1999, are a family of indices evaluating the sustainability performance of thousands of companies trading publicly, operated under a strategic partnership between S&P Dow Jones Indices and Ro ...
. The company received the Bronze Class Sustainability Award 2014 from RobecoSAM. Wolters Kluwer is recognized as one of the “Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World” by
Corporate Knights Corporate Knights is a media and research company based in Toronto, Canada, focused on advancing a sustainable economy. The company publishes an award-winning magazine,  ''Corporate Knights'', and produces global rankings, research reports, a ...
.


See also

* European Business Law Review * Books in the Netherlands * Croner Group (a subsidiary from 1977 to 2015)


References


External links

* {{authority control Academic publishing companies Book publishing companies of the Netherlands Publishing companies established in 1836 Legal publishers Companies listed on Euronext Amsterdam Health information technology companies 1836 establishments in the Netherlands Alphen aan den Rijn