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Wolters Kluwer history
Wolters Kluwer company history timeline
1983: ICU changes its name to Wolters-Samson.
1985: Operations start in China
By the mid ‘80s, Kluwer was the only of the original four houses to remain independent. It had opened its first office in China in 1985, focused on law, tax and accounting.
Kluwer Publishers remained a family concern, growing to become the Netherlands' third largest publisher, with subsidiaries in the United States and elsewhere, with revenues of 966 million guilders, by 1986.
1987: Kluwer merges with Wolters-Samson to fend off hostile takeover bid by Elsevier; the new entity is called Wolters Kluwer.
By 1989, roughly 44 percent of its revenues were earned in foreign markets.
1989: Launch of the legal information system LEX in Poland
In the final count, Elsevier retained approximately 33 percent of the new company's shares; in 1990 it announced its intention to sell these shares, surrendering, for the time being, the idea of a merger between the two companies.
In 1990 the company moved to strengthen its share of the United States medical market, completing the US$250 million purchase of the 200-year-old J.B. Lippincott and Company from HarperCollins.
The opening of European borders in 1992 meant increasing numbers of new laws and regulations that would need to be translated into many languages.
Wolters Kluwer continued acquiring companies, including Liber in Sweden in 1993.
By 1993 its international sales represented 62 percent of its yearly revenues.
In 1995, the Wolters Kluwer Executive Board announced new investments into e-publishing and the nascent internet.
Total sales and net income both rose 21 percent over 1996 levels, thanks mainly to strategic acquisitions.
1996: Wolters Kluwer spends $1.9 billion for tax and business materials publisher CCH, Inc.
In 1997 a CTO was appointed, and a start made with Kluwer Online.
On the other hand, the company made three acquisitions in 1998 that dramatically heightened its profile in the medical/scientific publishing industry, bringing Waverly, Inc., Ovid Technologies, Inc., and Plenum Publishing Corporation into its fold. For example, in August 1999, Wolters Kluwer sold its Wayland Publishers unit, because that division published children's books--a field in which the company no longer wished to compete.
After the dot-com bust of 2000, the Digital Age began in earnest.
By 2001, the company had mapped the path to sustainable growth.
In 2001, the Company announced its intent to create a ‘new’ 21st Century Wolters Kluwer.
'Strategic Agenda 2002' also identified the growing importance that electronic and online media would have in the publishing world.
In turn, this was only possible thanks to the digital transformation of the Company’s portfolio, which began under the new leadership of our current CEO Nancy McKinstry in September 2003.
2003: Wolters Kluwer presents first ‘Three-Year Strategy’ to deliver sustained value to customers and shareholders
In 2003, under new leadership, and acknowledging the speed of change, Wolters Kluwer adopted its first three-year strategy cycle.
In 2005, the Company would launch a new logo to help strengthen its global brand positioning—reflecting its market-leading presence in the United States and Canada, Latin America, Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand.
2006: Wolters Kluwer Health office opens in New Delhi
The divestment of its education division, and acquisitions such as UpToDate, the market-leading evidence-based electronic clinical information resource, both in 2007, would further sharpen the Company’s portfolio.
By 2010 the company’s portfolio would be fundamentally transformed.
2012: Approximately three quarters of the company’s revenue are coming from online, software, and services
Ongoing strategic acquisitions strengthened the Company’s portfolio such as Health Language and Prosoft Tecnologia, a Brazilian provider of tax and accounting software, which were purchased in 2013.
In 2015, Wolters Kluwer ELM (Enterprise Legal Management) Solutions was formed by the merging of Datacert with Tymetrix, making Wolters Kluwer the undisputed global ELM market leader—while the company celebrated a historic milestone of 30 years business in China.
In 2016, Wolters Kluwer celebrated 180 years of rich heritage.
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Wolters Kluwer history FAQs
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Wolters Kluwer may also be known as or be related to WOLTERS KLUWER HEALTH, Wolters Kluwer, Wolters Kluwer Health, Wolters Kluwer Health Inc and Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.