If mergers create companies similar in scale to Elsevier, the industry giant, won’t they act as a counterbalance to Elsevier’s dominance?
• Since the markets for individual STM journals and legal serials are not competitive, creation of additional large STM publishers (as with the combining of Springer and Kluwer in 2004 and of Wiley and Blackwell in 2007) will not create pressure on Elsevier to lower prices or modify its licensing terms. In fact, since mergers in these markets typically result in higher prices for the affected titles, Elsevier’s best profit-maximizing response would be to raise its prices as well. • Like Elsevier, additional large companies can bundle their products in ways that discourage cancellations and force libraries to cancel titles from smaller publishers.
