IP Profile of Biggest for-profit companies in EM
Research Questions
- What are the 10 biggest for-profit companies in this field?
- How is the market distributed?
- Where are they located? Are there any incentives for specific locations?
- Correlate them with their main outputs (Data, Narratives, Tools)
- Understand and identify cases where these companies are “experimenting” or “adopting” commons-based approaches
- Identify these cases and treat them as entities that will also be placed in our mapping device (the quadrants)
- Identify what companies are the “Microsofts” of the field and what companies are the “IBMs” of the field
Market Profile
This chart, using 2007 data from Simba Information, illustrates the consolidation of the traditional textbook market at the Higher Education level, where six publishers control over 90% of the market. Since 2007, the Higher Education textbook market has further consolidated with Cengage Learning’s acquisition of Houghton Mifflin’s College Division.
Two years prior, in 2005, Esposito wrote, "Market share for new textbooks (that is, the $4.2 billion piece) is highly consolidated, with 6 publishers holding about 85% of all sales dollars (Pearson, Thomson, McGraw Hill, John Wiley, Houghton Mifflin, and St. Martin's/Von Holtzbrinck). Although college publishing remains highly profitable for the large players, with reported EBITDA in some instances as high as 30%, growth has stalled, due in large part to the rise of the used book business, which represents the key strategic issue in the industry today." (Esposito 2005, 2)
In October 2006, Thomson Learning was purchased by private equity firm Apax Partners and OMERS Capital Parnters, acquiring "the domestic U.S. Higher Education, Gale library,reference and International businesses of Thomson Learning" (Mickey and Meaney 2008, 156). Thomson Learning ceased to exist at this point. Cengage then sought to purchase Houghton Mifflin's College Division in 2007, finalizing the deal in 2008 to create the second largest college publisher.
Bibliography for Item 6 in EM
Back to The Higher Education Level
Back to Educational Materials
Back to Report April 2009#Educational Materials