Thomson Corporation

The Thomson Corporation ( ) is one of the world's leading information companies, focused on providing integrated information solutions to business and professional customers.

Thomson provides integrated information based solutions to businesses and professional customers in law, tax, accounting, higher education, reference information, corporate e-learning, and assessment, financial services, scientific research, and healthcare sectors. The company operates through four groups: Thomson Legal and Regulatory; Thomson Learning; Thomson Financial; and Thomson Scientific and Healthcare.

Its stock is listed on the New York (since June 2002) and Toronto Stock Exchanges (ticker symbol TOC), with corporate headquarters in Toronto and operational headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut. Revenue for 2005 was $8.7 billion.

History

Since its founding by Roy Herbert Thomson, Thomson's history has been inextricably intertwined with the media age. By the end of the 1950s, Thomson had grown from a single Canadian newspaper, The Timmins Press, into a global media concern. It held several prominent newspapers in the United Kingdom, including The Sunday Times and The Scotsman, and it owned Scottish Television.

In the 1960s, Thomson's publishing realm expanded further to included Thomson Publication (UK), a consumer magazine and book publishing house, and the prestigious The Times of London. In 1965, Thomson Newspapers, Ltd. was formed as a publicly traded company in Canada. Roy Thomson's prolific endeavors in publishing had earned him a hereditary title, Lord Thomson of Fleet. Yet, Thomson's interests moved beyond publishing with the creation of Thomson Travel and acquisition of Britannia Airways in 1965 and 1971, and a foray into a consortium exploring the North Sea for oil and gas.

By the end of the 1970s, Thomson Newspapers' circulation in the United States had surpassed the 1 million mark. The company assumed its current name in 1989 with the merger of Thomson Newspapers and the International Thomson Organization.

Over the years, the company has withdrawn from its holdings in the oil and gas business, the travel industry and department stores.^*"In Canada, the Torch is Passed on a Quiet but Profitable Legacy," by Ian Austen, The New York Times (Business Day section) p. C1, July 3, 2006; accessed on July 3, 2006.

When Kenneth Thomson took over from his father Roy in 1976, the company was worth about $500 million. At Kenneth's death in June 2006, the company was valued at about $29.3 billion.

Transition from newspapers to business and professional information

In 1978, the acquisition of Wadsworth publishing provided Thomson with its first entry into specialized information, college textbooks and professional books.

Starting in the mid-1990s, Thomson invested further in specialized information services (but this time providing them in digital format) and began selling off its newspapers. That was about the time Richard J. Harrington, an accountant, became chief executive officer of the company. One of the first moves came when Thomson spent $3.4 billion to acquire the West Publishing Company, a legal information provider in Eagan, Minn.

Today's Thomson Corporation provides much of the specialized information content the world's financial, legal, academic, research and medical organizations rely on every day to make business-critical decisions and drive innovation. While it remains a publishing company, early and aggressive investment in electronic delivery has become a key to the company's success.

"Except for its educational division, which still publishes a substantial number of conventional textbooks, Thomson had the good fortune to move into these businesses as customers were demanding electronic delivery of their information," according to a July 3, 2006 article in The New York Times. "In some markets, Thomson was able to move past other players who were more cautious about digital conversion."

Although Thomson's new business areas are profitable, they aren't very well-known or glamorous, which may be why the company doesn't tend to be very well known. About 80 percent of the stock not controlled by the Thomson family is owned by Canadians already familiar with the company.

Brands

Many consumers may be more familiar with Thomson's many market-leading brands than with the Thomson company name itself. Its brands include Westlaw, FindLaw, Physician's Desk Reference, RIA, Quickfinder, DISEASEDEX, DrugREAX, Thomson First Call, Checkpoint, EndNote, Derwent World Patent Index, Micropatent, Fax Pat, OptiPat, Just Files, Corporate Intelligence, InfoTrac, Delphion, Arco Test Prep, Peterson's Directories, TradeWeb, Web of Science and the Arden Shakespeare. Thomson formerly owned Jane's Information Group. These information sources are produced by the many companies of Thomson, including West Publishing, Thomson Financial, ISI, Thomson Gale, Dialog Corporation, Brookers, Carswell, CCBN, Course Technology, Gardiner-Caldwell, IHI, Lawbook Co, Peterson's, Wadsworth and Sweet & Maxwell.

Thomson's largest market group, Thomson Legal & Regulatory, is based in Eagan, Minnesota. The others are Thomson Learning, Thomson Financial, and Thomson Scientific & Healthcare. Today, Thomson employs about 38,000 people in 46 countries and claims 20 million customers in 130 countries.

In late 2004, the company sold its Thomson Media group to a Middle Eastern investment firm. The B2B publishing group, which features such titles as American Banker and The Bond Buyer, is now known as SourceMedia.

Thomson has now divested almost all its traditional media assets in favour of information technology services and products.

Corporate governance

Current members of the board of directors of Thomson are: David K.R. Thomson (chairman of the board since 2002), W. Geoffrey Beattie, Richard Harrington, Ron Barbaro, Mary Cirillo, Robert Daleo, Steven Denning, Maureen Darkes, Roger Martin, Vance Opperman, John M. Thompson, Peter Thomson, Richard Thomson, and John Tory.

The Thomson family owns 70 percent of the company.

When Kenneth Thomson died in June 2006, control of the family fortune passed on to David K.R. Thomson under a plan put together decades ago by company founder Roy Thomson.

"David, my grandson, will have to take his part in the running of the Organisation and David's son, too," Roy wrote in his 1975 autobiography. "With the fortune that we will leave to them go also responsibilities. These Thompson boys that come after Ken are not going to be able, even if they want to, to shrug off these responsibilities."

The Thomson family controls the Thomson Corporation through a family-owned entity, The Woodbridge Company, based in Toronto. (Along with 70 percent of Thomson Corporation, Woodbridge also owns a 40 percent stake in Bell Globemedia, which now owns The Globe and Mail daily newspaper in Toronto and CTV, Canada's largest commercial TV network.) David K.R. Thomson and his brother, Peter J. Thomson, became co-chairmen of Woodbridge on their father's death.

References

External links

S&P/TSX 60 Index | Media companies of Canada | Book_publishing_companies | Thomson family | The Thomson Corporation