Springer Science+Business Media Acquires Humana Press; Life Sciences and Clinical Medicine Publishing Activities to Be Strengthened.

BERLIN & NEW YORK -- In a move that is geared to drive further organic growth, Springer Science+Business Media (Springer) has announced its acquisition of Humana Press Inc. (Humana Press), a leading publisher of research-level books and journals in molecular biology, neuroscience, cancer research, and medicine.

Based in Totowa, NJ, USA, Humana Press (www.humanapress.com) publishes the Methods in Molecular Biology series, the Cancer Drug Discovery and Development series, the Contemporary Cardiology series, the Neuromethods series, the Methods in Molecular Medicine series, and many others. Its portfolio includes 25 journals, including Molecular Biotechnology, Journal of Molecular Neuroscience, Cardiovascular Toxicology, Endocrine, and NeuroMolecular Medicine. Humana Press has a distinguished backlist of approximately 1000 titles and is currently adding approximately 150 books per year, with roughly half in clinical medicine and half in the life sciences.

The acquisition of Humana Press links complementary businesses and strengthens Springer's existing position in life sciences and clinical medicine publishing. In addition, the merger will bring to Springer two market-leading and highly-respected protocol databases that include over 16,000 searchable online protocols in biomedicine. These protocol databases are widely used in biological research and richly complement the Springer eBook Collection, launched earlier this summer. Substantially all of Humana's publications are available in both print and eBook formats.

Derk Haank, Springer's CEO said: "Humana Press will greatly strengthen Springer's position in two key publishing areas and in the United States. Thanks to the dedication and quality-consciousness of Tom and Julia Lanigan, Humana Press is a jewel of an operation and everyone at Springer is looking forward to working with them. Indeed, we are pleased that Tom and Julia will stay on as advisors for two years to ensure a smooth transition for all people involved and for the continuity of the operations."

Tom Lanigan said: "We could not have chosen a better partner -- Springer is renowned for the quality and innovativeness of its products. The discussions with Derk Haank and the Springer team have been open and frank and the opportunities for all parties are considerable. By working in partnership with Springer, who will maintain the Humana Press imprint, we will be offering our authors and the societies we work with greater visibility across the globe."

Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) is one of the world's leading suppliers of scientific and specialist literature. It is the second-largest publishing group in the science, technology, and medicine (STM) sector and the largest business-to-business publisher in the German-language area. The group owns 70 publishing houses, together publishing a total of 1,450 journals and more than 5,000 new books a year. The group operates in over 20 countries in Europe, the USA, and Asia, and has some 5,000 employees. In 2005, it generated annual sales of around EUR 838 million.