FT.com: Reed Elsevier sells Nordic division of RBI

Reed Elsevier has sold another piece of trade magazine arm Reed Business Information (RBI). The group’s Nordic arm has acquired by private equity firm GMT for around €10 million, the FT reports.

Reed failed to sell RBI as a whole unit last year.

It has since sold its travel publishing division TWgroup and announced it will offload some of its US controlled circulation titles.

Full post at this link…

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RBI staff vote against further industrial action

National Union of Journalist (NUJ) members at Reed Business Information (RBI) have voted against further industrial action following a strike ballot at the publisher.

In the Wednesday ballot, 111 voted against further action being taken in response to proposed merger of production desks at Flight International, ICIS and Contract Journal and issues of compulsory redundancies.

According to an internal memo seen by Journalism.co.uk, the NUJ chapel will meet with the company again on March 4 to discuss new offers to staff, with separate meetings to be held for members at New Scientist and Estates Gazette.

In the ballot, 64 NUJ members voted in favour of taking industrial action.

Last month the group announced 35 staff redundancies in the UK, citing ‘long-term structural needs’ and the new challenges of the economic downturn.

Parent company Reed Elsevier recently extended loan arrangements for its $2 billion debt.

In December Reed terminated the sale of magazine arm RBI, as a result of ‘the recent deterioration in macro-economic outlook and poor credit market conditions’.

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Timeline of RBI sale

Since announcing the ‘divestment’ of magazine publishing arm Reed Business Information (RBI), the sale by parent company Reed Elsevier has been the centre of much speculation.

Below is a timeline (created using Dipity) of the events so far – if there are any missing, let me know:

Similar posts:

• DutchNews.nl: RBI to grow online income by 50 per cent in three years
• RBI Divestment Watch blog closed?
• FT.com: RBI publisher may extend loan debt
• FT.com: Reed Elsevier sells Nordic division of RBI
• RBI staff vote against further industrial action

Dow Jones: RBI buyer to be announced by October, says Reed Elsevier

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• MediaGuardian: Bertelsmann will bid for RBI magazines
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• FT.com: Reed Elsevier sells Nordic division of RBI
• Media Release: RBI sells Travely Publishing Group