LONDON and REDMOND, Wash., May 6, 1997 — Reed Elsevier plc and Microsoft Corp. today announced that they have signed a letter of intent to make Microsoft® technologies a cornerstone of Reed Elsevier’s electronic information products and corporate computing platforms.
The agreement is part of Microsoft’s strategy of forming significant alliances in several industries. Reed Elsevier is to be Microsoft’s key alliance partner in the scientific, professional, and business publishing and information industry.
The five-year agreement, valued at approximately $30 million, will enable Reed Elsevier to use Microsoft Commercial Internet Systems (MCIS), a suite of commercial-grade Internet applications that will enhance Reed Elsevier’s future electronic offering of its information products to customers in the scientific, legal, business and travel information markets.
The strategic aspects of the relationship will be reflected in the course of five years through numerous cooperative projects between Reed Elsevier and Microsoft, as illustrated by the following current examples:
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Microsoft is working with Reed Elsevier business units to deliver information products through Microsoft Internet Explorer. Reed Elsevier will use Microsoft Internet Explorer to give its customers the ability to access and manage Reed Elsevier information via global or enterprise networks.
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Microsoft is working with Reed Elsevier to support the development of its Current Awareness application using MCIS. Microsoft will work with Reed Elsevier to ensure that Reed Elsevier is able to deliver new products based on MCIS features as they are developed by Microsoft.
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Reed Elsevier will use Microsoft Office as well as the Microsoft BackOffice
™
family, the Windows NT® Server network operating system and Microsoft SQL Server
™
to support all of the publisher’s 26,000 employees worldwide. This technology will be used to deliver business information across a distributed network to Reed Elsevier business units in the United Kingdom, the United States, continental Europe and the Far East.
“We have chosen Microsoft as our strategic technology partner because we feel it is the company with the strongest expertise and resources to help us build the technology components needed for the overall success of Reed Elsevier’s strategies for electronic publishing,” said Nigel Stapleton, co-chairman of Reed Elsevier plc. “By entering into such a wide-ranging strategic relationship with Microsoft, we expect to deliver state-of-the-art electronic information products to our customers in a more timely and efficient manner. In addition, Microsoft has the proven abilities that we need to support Reed Elsevier technology applications internally for corporate and business unit applications.”
“This is a tremendous opportunity for Microsoft to support one of the most significant companies of the information age,” said Bill Gates, chairman and CEO of Microsoft. “We are delighted that Reed Elsevier has chosen our leading-edge technology to help distribute its unrivaled content via Microsoft applications to so many worldwide end users of Reed Elsevier’s information products.”
Reed Elsevier (http://www.reed-elsevier.com/) is one of the world’s leading publishing and information businesses. Reed Elsevier has annual sales of approximately $5 billion. It is owned equally by Reed International plc, a U.K. company (NYSE: RUK), and Elsevier NV (NYSE: ENL), a Dutch company.
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (NASDAQ
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software for personal computers. The company offers a wide range of products and services for business and personal use, each designed with the mission of making it easier and more enjoyable for people to take advantage of the full power of personal computing every day.
Microsoft, BackOffice and Windows NT are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
Other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.
Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/ on Microsoft’s corporate information pages
