Springer

Springer is the world’s second-largest publisher of journals in the science, technology and medicine (STM) sector, the largest publisher of STM books, and the largest business-to-business publisher in the German-language area.  Generating sales of €906 million in 2007, Springer has about 5,000 employees and owns around 60 publishing houses in 20 countries across Europe, Asia and the United States.   Springer’s products include books, journals, newsletters, CD-ROMs, databases and online services; it also organises seminars and conferences.

Springer was formed in 2003 through the €1.7 billion merger, orchestrated by owners Candover and Cinven, of Kluwer Academic Publishing and Bertelsmann Springer.  The strategy was to reap merger benefits from the combined businesses. From the outset, Candover and Cinven aimed to recruit a new, experienced management team to help refine the merger plan.   Skillcapital was engaged six months before the start of the process.  Most of the firms involved in the bid were searching for available executives with a publishing background, preferably German nationals.  We took a different approach, focussing on  managers of the best-performing international publishing assets in the scientific, technical and medical arena.  Three months before the process began, we approached Derk Haank, CEO of Elsevier Science, part of Reed Elsevier Group, who had overseen the integration of Harcourt and the group’s restructuring.  Later, we approached Martin Mos, the CFO of Elsevier Science.  Derk and Martin began work with Candover and Cinven in an advisory capacity, and went on to become Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer respectively at the new, merged business.

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