New twist in the pot-boiler at Blackwell

Publisher could be sold for £300m as shareholder meetings are cancelled

The bitter battle over the future of Blackwell Publishing took a dramatic turn late last week when two shareholders' meetings were called off at the last minute.

The move raises speculation that the business could be sold to its rival, Taylor & Francis, for around £300m.

Toby Blackwell, the 74-year-old former chairman of the academic books and journals group, called an extraordinary shareholders meeting of it and its sister company, book retailer Blackwell Ltd, in the hope of forcing a trade sale of the publishing business.

Mr Blackwell has been waging a campaign for nearly a year to crystallise the value of the Oxford-based company.

He owns 30 per cent of Blackwell Publishing and 64 per cent of Blackwell Ltd, which in turn owns 9.3 per cent of the academic publishing business.

Mr Blackwell called the Blackwell Ltd meeting for Thursday to secure backing for a vote in favour of a trade sale for Blackwell Publishing.

With this stake and the support of smaller shareholders who own 12 per cent of the company, Mr Blackwell believes he can outgun his nephew, Nigel, who owns 42 per cent of Blackwell Publishing and opposes a sale. Another 5 per cent is owned by Philip, Toby's son, who is believed to be backing Nigel.

The younger Blackwells prefer to allow the recently appointed chief executive, Rene Olivieri, to turn the company around in the hope that it can be floated on the stock market in three years.

The Blackwell Ltd meeting was originally scheduled for 18 April and then was put back while talks continued.

On Thursday it was postponed for three weeks and the Blackwell Publishing meeting put back indefinitely.

Though no one close to the companies would confirm why the meetings were put off, there is well-informed speculation that the two sides were in talks that would ultimately lead to Morgan Stanley being appointed to auction off the business.

The only offer on the table so far has come from Taylor & Francis, the quoted academic book publisher.

It became so frustrated at the to-ing and fro-ing at Blackwell Publishing that it went public with its offer in March.

Other potential bidders include Wolters Luwer, the Dutch publishing group, and Reed Elsevier, the world's largest scientific publisher, though it may have competition problems.

The battle at Blackwell has galvanised the normally stuffy world of academic publishing and has been seen in Oxford as a cross between a soap opera and an episode of the 1970s TV series The Brothers.