The other most serious contender in addition to Thomson is Reed-Elsevier
which owns Butterworth, Equity, and Martindale H.
The next most serious contender is the Times Mirror Corp.(Matthew
Bender).
Reed has the most ready cash at hand.
Is say the odds are 3:2 that Reed will take it and 100% that it will be
Reed, Thomson, or Times Mirror.
Alan Sugarman
HL
On Thu, 26 May 1994, Jim Milles wrote:
> >Date: Wed, 25 May 1994 16:31:14 -0700
> >From: Walter Duflock <walt@Integrate.com>
>
> [stuff deleted]
>
> >2) West would probably be making a mistake if they tried to
> >purchase MDC. First, the antitrust forces are already excited about
> >taking on Microsoft, so they'd be very interested in this (sure,
> >everyone on this list knows that if you define the market as "on line
> >information services" there's no monopoly BUT if they define the
> >market as "on line LEGAL information services" you could definitely
> >claim that a West/MDC merger is an attempt to monopolize the market)
> >transaction. Second, West would have all the librarian barbs that
> >are currently split among the vendors aimed solely at them :<) Just
> >a thought.
> >
>
> Seriously, I doubt that West is even a contender. The anitrust
> objections seem too formidable, and as much as any of us like
> WESTLAW, I doubt that any of us would really want them to be our
> ONLY online vendor.
>
> The most likely purchaser seems to me to be Thomson and Thomson.
> This would be a good thing; they could bring the kind of
> editorial quality to the database that has been lacking, and
> would very likely strenghten LEXIS's foreign and international
> holdings. That would really give WESTLAW a run for the money.
>
> Jim Milles
> Head of Computer Services
> Saint Louis University Law Library
> millesjg@sluvca.slu.edu
>
>
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