Elsevier Acquires Mendeley
April 15, 2013
Color us pleasantly surprised; a traditional publisher is embracing open content. I fact, it has sunk a hefty sum into it, we learn from “Confirmed: Elsevier Has Bought Mendeley for $69M-$100M to Expand Its Open, Social Education Data Efforts” at TechCrunch. Major global science and health publisher Excelvier has long been seen as an opponent of the open license. Mendeley, on the other hand, is founded on sharing and collaboration. Does this acquisition signal a shift in the publishing industry?
Writer Ingrid Lunden delves into the details:
“Mendeley is both a technology/platform acquisition as well as an acqui-hire for Elsevier. CEO Victor Henning, one of the three PhD co-founders of Mendeley, tells us in an interview that all of Mendeley’s 50 staff are coming over to Elsevier, and Henning will become VP of strategy for the company — a sign that Elsevier may be gearing up for more activity and possibly acquisitions in this space.”
Elsevier has actually been working with Mendeley for several years, indicating it may long ago have seen the inevitability of a more open publishing model. For its part, Mendeley will continue to run its main platform and its academic edition while expanding its free services. Lunden emphasizes:
“It will also keep its API free and open to use: that API today is used by some 300 apps, up from 260 in January. Henning says Mendeley will continue to source data from different places — not just focus on what’s published or owned by Elsevier.”
That is a very important pledge. Henning also says the deal will allow Mendeley to take a longer view, as opposed to stressing over short-term revenue, as they would have done had they remained independent. That means the opportunity to proceed with projects that have been on the back burner, like the hoped-for launch of an Android app later in the year. For more information see the article and/or see the Q&A page Mendeley has created about the agreement.
Cynthia Murrell, April 15, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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