Jobs To Go At Reed Elsevier As Part Of Cost Cutting

Anglo-Dutch publishing group, Reed Elsevier, this morning said that it plans to achieve annualised savings of £170 million, beginning with projected savings of £130 million in 2000. The money accrued from these savings will go towards a £750 million investment in the internet, Reed announced in its preliminary 1999 results today.

However, according to Reuters, the company’s chief executive officer, Crispin Davis, has confirmed that around 1,500 jobs are to be lost as part of the cost cutting exercise. The bulk of these jobs are expected to come from the US, but the losses will be also be felt in most other countries.

Reed Elsevier is committing itself to attaining global leadership in the scientific, legal and business publishing markets. The company had a poor 1999, with pre-tax profits down 9% to £710 million; turnover grew 5% to £3.4 billion.

Davis says: “Reed Elsevier has powerful and valuable assets: leading brands and market positions, high quality and in-depth content, scale, professional people and financial strength. Coupled with the exciting opportunities opened up to us by the internet, this represents a strong platform for growth. We are determined to build aggressively on this with a new management team and new strategy in place.”

Reed Elsevier is the combined business of the UK’s Reed International and Dutch group Elsevier. At 10:20am today, Reed’s shares were down 2˝p at 602žp.

Reed Elsevier: 020 7222 8420