Wiley announces Hindawi acquisition

Share this on social media:

John Wiley & Sons has announced the acquisition of Hindawi Limited, for a total purchase price of $298 million. Wiley says the purchase adds 'quality, scale and growth to the company’s open access publishing program'.

Open access is a rapidly growing scholarly publishing model that allows peer-reviewed articles to be read and shared immediately, making important research broadly available. Hindawi has played a critical role in advancing gold open access, an OA model in which validated articles are made immediately available for reading and re-use following the payment of a publication fee.

Hindawi, privately held and headquartered in London, has a portfolio of over 200 peer-reviewed scientific, technical, and medical journals, its own publishing platform, and a low-cost infrastructure. Wiley says its acquisition of Hindawi unlocks significant and profitable new growth by tapping deeper into the fast-growing OA market and by delivering innovative publishing services to researchers, societies, and institutions around the world. For the fiscal year ending December 31, 2020, Hindawi is projected to generate approximately $40 million in revenue with year-over-year growth of 50 per cent.

'The acquisition of Hindawi enables Wiley to move farther and faster toward our goal of meeting the world’s urgent and escalating need for new knowledge,' said Brian Napack, President and CEO, Wiley. 'Hindawi is a true pioneer in the industry, empowering researchers with a fully digital, user-friendly publishing process that gets their life-changing, peer-reviewed discoveries out into the world faster and more efficiently.'

The addition of Hindawi’s journals doubles Wiley’s gold (pure) OA journal portfolio and will increase author retention by giving researchers more options to publish within Wiley titles, the company says, adding that Hindawi's technology combined with Wiley’s innovative platforms and services will enhance the publishing experience for authors, editors, and reviewers. The deal will also strengthen Wiley’s growing position in the global research industry, particularly in China – the world’s fast-growing research market.

'Similar to Wiley, we are driven by a mission to advance openness in research, working with researchers, publishers, institutions, and organizations to build a vibrant ecosystem that helps this global community thrive,' said Paul Peters, Hindawi’s CEO, who will continue to lead Hindawi as part of Wiley’s Research business. 'With Wiley’s commitment to Hindawi and open access, we are excited to accelerate scientific discovery, collaboration, and innovation to maximize the impact of research for future generations.'

'We have worked hard with our partners to build one of the world's largest fully open access publishing platforms,' added Ahmed Hindawi, Hindawi’s co-founder. 'The combined strengths of Hindawi and Wiley will continue to support the evolving needs of the research community in new and innovative ways.'

Related news