In a landmark move McGraw Hill Financial (NYSE: MHFI) was rebranded S&P Global today, following a shareholder vote at its Annual Shareholders Meeting. On Thursday April 28 President and Chief Executive Officer Douglas L. Peterson will ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange when the Company’s shares will begin trading under the new ticker symbol, SPGI.
In a letter to shareholders issued on April 27, 2016, Mr. Peterson spoke about the Company’s evolution and its focus on providing the intelligence that is essential for companies, governments, and individuals to make decisions with conviction.
Mr. Peterson’s letter and vision for the Company’s future can be viewed at http://media.mhfi.com/documents/SPG_Shareholder_Letter.pdf.
About S&P Global: S&P Global (NYSE: SPGI, effective April 28, 2016) is a leading provider of transparent and independent ratings, benchmarks, analytics and data to the capital and commodity markets worldwide. The Company’s divisions include S&P Global Ratings, S&P Global Market Intelligence, S&P Dow Jones Indices and S&P Global Platts. S&P Global has approximately, 20,000 employees in 31 countries. For more information visit www.spglobal.com, effectiveApril 28, 2016.
History: McGraw Hill started McGraw-Hill Education traces its history back to 1888 when James H. McGraw, co-founder of the company, purchased the American Journal of Railway Appliances. He continued to add further publications, eventually establishing The McGraw Publishing Company in 1899. His co-founder, John A. Hill, had also produced several technical and trade publications and in 1902 formed his own business, The Hill Publishing Company.
In 1909 both men agreed upon an alliance and combined the book departments of their publishing companies into The McGraw-Hill Book Company. John Hill served as President, with James McGraw as Vice-President. 1917 saw the merger of the remaining parts of each business into The McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, Inc.[16] In 1986, McGraw-Hill bought out competitor The Economy Company, then the nation’s largest publisher of educational material. The buyout made McGraw-Hill the largest educational publisher in the U.S.[17]
In 1941, Poor’s Publishing and Standard Statistics merged to become Standard & Poor’s Corp. In 1966, the company was acquired by The McGraw-Hill Companies, extending McGraw-Hill into the field of financial information services.
In 1979 McGraw-Hill Publishing Company purchased Byte from its owner/publisher Virginia Williamson who then became a vice-president of McGraw-Hill.
McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, Inc became The McGraw-Hill Companies in 1995, as part of a corporate identity rebranding.[18][not in citation given]
In 2007, The McGraw-Hill Companies launched an online student study network, GradeGuru.com. This offering gave McGraw-Hill an opportunity to connect directly with its end users, the students. The site closed on April 29, 2012.
On November 26, 2012, The McGraw-Hill Companies announced it was selling its entire education division to Apollo Global Management for $2.5 billion.[19] On March 22, 2013, it announced it had completed the sale and the proceeds were for $2.4 billion in cash.[20]
McGraw-Hill divested the subsidiary McGraw-Hill Construction to Symphony Technology Group for US$320 million on September 22, 2014. The sale included Engineering News-Record, Architectural Record, Dodge and Sweet’s. McGraw-Hill Construction has been renamed Dodge Data & Analytics.
On April 15, 2016 McGraw Hill Financial (NYSE: MHFI) announced it has reached a definitive agreement to sell J.D. Power to XIO Group, a global alternative investments firm, for $1.1 billion in cash.
On April 27th the shareholders of McGraw Hill Financial voted for the rebranding of the company to S&P Global.
Source: S&P Global
