Springer is a publisher specialized in scientific and professional information, with approximately 2,200 journals and 8,400 new book titles launched in 2013. Key segments are science, technical and medical, transport and architecture. Springer’s e-book collection counts 160,000 titles available online (including the Springer Book Archives). Springer has offices in 25 countries worldwide.

Springer was founded as a bookshop in 1842, which was quickly followed by a publishing company in Berlin. An office in Vienna followed in 1924, and one in New York in 1964, followed quickly with more branches in Tokyo, London, Paris and Hong Kong.
In 1999, Bertelsmann acquired a majority share in Springer-Verlag. In 2003, the British financial investors Cinven and Candover acquired Kluwer Academic Publishers (KAP) and Bertelsmann Springer, which were merged in 2004.

In October 2008, Springer announced the acquisition of BioMed Central, a pioneering open access publisher, making Springer, in effect, the world’s largest open access publisher.

In 2009, the sale of Springer to EQT, a Swedish financial investor, and GIC, the investment vehicle of the government of Singapore, was announced.

Analysis & Key Developments

Financial
Springer’s turnover fell from 976m€ in 2012 to 943m€ in 2013. Springer corrected its last year result to 981m€.

Ownership, mergers & acquisition, internal organization
Springer's ownership change was completed in fiscal 2013. London-based buyout house BC Partners bought Springer from its private equity owners EQT, the private equity arm of Sweden’s Wallenberg family, and GIC for 3.3bnEUR including debt. EQT and GIC, which will keep a minority stake in Springer, said EBITDA have grown 12,6% annually to €341m in 2012.

In January 2014, Springer acquired French driving school publisher Planète Permis SAS, situated near by Strasbourg.

The Vienna-based academic publishing imprint Springer WienNewYork sold its architecture and art book segment to media holding Medecco in April 2013.


International
Revenue by country is made up by following contributions: Germany/Austria/Switzerland (28%), Rest of Europe (23%), North America (24%), Asia Pacific (17%), Latin America (3%), and Rest of the world (5%).

Digital
Digital accounts for 75% of revenue from STM content.

SpringerLink is an internet science portal, including more than 8 million documents, an e-book collection with more than 160,000 titles, journal archives digitized back to the 1840s and more than 30,000 protocols and 290 reference works

According to company information, Springer is the leading Open Access with more than 420 open access journals.

Earlier Developments

Financial
Springer’s turnover jumped from 890m€ in 2011 to 976m€ in 2012.

Ownership, mergers & acquisition, internal organization
According to rumors, a change in ownership will happen sooner or later. After Bertelsmann rejected the sell-off, the financial investors EQT and GIC are either looking for disposal opportunities or going public. Big names such as Reed Elsevier, Wolters Kluwer and Informa are on the list of interested parties, as well as private equity firms such as KKR, Carlyle, Providence, BC Partners and Blackstone. The estimated value of Springer Science & Business comes to 3 or 4bn€.

International
Despite a growing presence in emerging markets, revenue by country is made up by following contributions: Germany/Austria/Switzerland (29%), rest of Europe (23%), North America (24%), Asia Pacific (16%), Latin America (3%), and rest of the world (4%).

Digital
Springer announced in June 2014 that it has expanded its open access publishing program to include a full open access option for e-books. According to PW, Springer has been the most aggressive of the major commercial STM publishers in pursuing Open Access publishing.

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