Rene Olivieri

A major publishing acquisition was completed in early February as John Wiley & Sons Inc. announced the finalization of its acquisition of Blackwell Publishing Holdings Ltd. The purchase price of $1.1 billion (U.S.) Wiley paid for the academic and professional publisher was financed with a combination of debt and cash. Blackwell’s publishing program will be merged with Wiley’s global scientific, technical, and medical business, Wiley representatives said. The merged business is now the largest of the three owned by Wiley; its other publishing ventures are professional/trade and higher education. “Wiley begins our third century of publishing by embarking on the path of growth