This post tries to collect information about the concentration of market power with science publishers. If you want to contribute, please leave comments stating who bought whom in which year and a URL giving proof about the deal, in case you have one.
The examples I start with are from linguistics and manl concern German publishing houses.
Blackwell publishing (2007) -> Wiley-Blackwell, owned by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (publically traded but controlled by the Wiley family via preference shares )
Böhlau (2017) -> Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht
Bonn University Press/Mainz University Press/Universitätsverlag Osnabrück/Vienna University Press -> V & R unipress -> Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht
Source: https://www.vandenhoeck-ruprecht-verlage.com/verlage/
Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht -> Brill (2021) Quelle: taz, 06.03.2021
Kluwer Academic Publishing -> Springer
Niemeyer, Oldenburgh, Akademie-Verlag -> De Gruyter GmbH
Metzler -> Springer
Rodopi -> Brill (2014)
Routledge -> Taylor & Francis (a division of Informa plc, whose biggest investor (7.77%) is BlackRock)
Westdeutscher Verlag -> Springer
Pingback: Zombie Lingua, Elsevier and what profit-oriented publishers are good for | Free Science Blog
Maybe we should also add the type company if that is known, e.g., De Gruyter GmbH?
And maybe we should also have a list of independent publisher at the bottom, to stop rechecking?
In any event, here are two more cases:
Böhlau (2017) -> Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht
Bonn University Press/Mainz University Press/Universitätsverlag Osnabrück/ Vienna University Press -> V & R unipress -> Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht
Source: https://www.vandenhoeck-ruprecht-verlage.com/verlage/
Blackwell publishing (2007) -> Wiley-Blackwell, owned by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (publically traded but controlled by the Wiley family via preference shares )
What? University presses sell out to commercial publishers? I never thought about this option. Interesting.
düsseldorf university press -> Imprint of DE GRUYTER (see: http://www.dupress.de/) Apparently, from 2008 to 2018 it was an independent University Press (see: http://dupress.de/fileadmin/redaktion/DUP/PDF-Dateien_/Infodateien/Ueber_uns_-_mehr.pdf)
Buske -> Meiner (bought in 1992). Meiner itself is still a family-owned business. Source: https://meiner.de/der-verlag/verlag