The Reed Business U.S. sale process is a tough going, according to an internal year-end memo sent out by RBI USA CEO John Poulin yesterday, and obtained by us. The parent company tried to sell the global RBI unit last year and that was abandoned after it couldn’t find a…

The global B2B giant Reed Elsevier’s CEO Ian Smith is leaving after just eight months in the position, and will be replaced by Erik Engstrom (pictured), currently CEO of Elsevier. No specific reason was given for Smith’s departure, though the company itself has been reeling from the global recession. It…

Update: Response from McGraw Hill: “We believe that Reed’s legal claims are without merit, and we intend to defend against them vigorously. We take these allegations very seriously and are committed to ensuring that all employees comply with our Code of Business Ethics.” This is as wild as it will…

At least this time it has started a lot faster: Reed Business Information U.S. has already decided on a bank, we have learned from sources: The Jordan, Edmiston Group is the banker appointed to help it sell properties such as B&C, Multichannel News, Publishers Weekly, Twice and Video Business among…

Reed Elsevier (NYSE: RUK) has promised to aggressively cut back and restructure its businesses by an extra $220 million a year as it recovers from a tumultuous year that saw the failed auction of its Reed Business Information B2B division and doubts over its ability to pay off massive debts.…

Reed Elsevier (NYSE: RUK), which recently went thorough a failed process of trying to sell off its B2B media division Reed Business Information, has put in place a $2 billion “forward start” credit facility from a syndicate of 19 banks, starting May 2010 and maturing May 2012. A forward start…

The verdict is in and the answer is: no sale. Reed Elsevier (NYSE: RUK) has announced that its torturous, nine-month campaign to sell the B2B magazine division is over. Reed announced to the stock market this afternoon that it has “terminated discussions with potential bidders” and that due to the…

Today’s news that Reed Elsevier’s proposed auction of B2B division Reed Business Information has failed comes after months of behind-the-scenes negotiating, departures and optimistic predictions from the publisher. The next installment in the tale is likely to be the restructuring of RBI and—eventually—another invitation to anyone that might be interested…

The CEO of B2B publisher Reed Business Information, Gerard van de Aast, is to step down next month and will relinquish his positions on the boards of both RBI and parent company Reed Elsevier (NYSE: RUK), throwing even more uncertainty on the former’s planned divestment from the latter. From December…

Anglo-Dutch science and business publisher Reed Elsevier (NYSE: RUK) confirmed what we already knew: that it is struggling to sell its Farmers Weekly publisher Reed Business Information: “The process of divestment ... is at an advanced stage, although, in the present economic and credit environment, a satisfactory outcome cannot be…

Science and business publisher Reed Elsevier (NYSE: RUK) has announced who will lead the company following CEO Sir Crispin Davis’ planned retirement. Ian Smith starts as CEO-designate on January 1 until Davis finally leaves in March after nine years in charge. Smith comes with chief executive pedigree - he was…

Reed Elsevier (NYSE: RUK) is unlikely to sell its Reed Business Information (RBI) as a whole entity and must cut its asking price, the former US CEO of the UK-based B2B publishing unit has warned. Jim Casella, who spent four years at RBI until 2005, told our Future Of Business…

We noted earlier today that the Reed Business Information auction is being sweetened again, with parent Reed Elsevier (NYSE: RUK) planning to to offer a bigger vendor loan to finance the struggling sell-off. Now we have learned that there are three parties left in the auction, and interestingly, one group…

Reed Elsevier’s (NYSE: RUK) troubled attempt to sell-off its UK B2B division Reed Business Information appears to be in big trouble with the news that bids for the company since August have fallen about a half-million dollars, according to Bloomberg. Two unidentified sources close to the deal told the news…

When Reed Elsevier (NYSE: RUK) last spoke on the subject, it told the market it hoped to sell off its Reed Business Information (RBI) B2B publishing unit as early as October. But that was August - in the intervening period, a little thing has happened called “the credit crunch”. Could…

Reed Business Information’s second round auction may be running into trouble, as bidders are lowering their prices, reports Times UK. There are no bids close to its £1.25 billion ($2.5 billion) asking price and there is talk the unit may be worth as little as £800 million ($1.6 billion), the…

Reed Elsevier (NYSE: RUK) expects the sale of its Reed Business Information trade magazine unit to complete as early as October. In a memo seen by Dow Jones, Marianne van Leeuwen, CEO of the Holland operation, says bids were made for RBI “since last week”. “In the first three weeks…

Reed Business Information, the B2B magazine unit of Reed Elsevier (NYSE: RUK), is moving closer to sale, as the bidding enters the second round, after about 12 bidders in its first round. UBS, the bank for RBI, has invited McGraw-Hill (NYSE: MHP), the parent of BusinessWeek, and PE firm Bain…

Is McGraw-Hill (NYSE: MHP) working on a bid for Reed Business Information? We had been working on a tip to this effect for the last two months, but at that time, the thought was that MGH was only interested in buying the constructions titles of RBI, for its own construction…