Maxwell: landmarks
Landmarks
This chronology is indicative only. It covers -
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- antecedents (1818)
- beginnings (1949)
- "not a fit and proper person" (1969)
- newspaper mogul (1984)
- collapse (1988)
- aftermath (1992)
Context is provided by the broader communications and media timeline on this site.
Antecedents
1818 Butterworths founded
1848 Springer Verlag founded
1915 Rothermere launches Sunday Pictorial (later Sunday Mirror)
1923 Jan Ludwik Hoch born in Czechoslovakia
1940 takes name Robert Maxwell
1946 becomes sole UK and US distributor for Germany's Springer scientific publishers
1947 Harmsworths float Daily Mirror
Beginnings
1949 Maxwell founds Pergamon Press
1951 buys Butterworth and Springer interests in Pergamon
1955 month-long national press strike in UK. Daily Record acquired by Mirror Group
1964 becomes UK Labour MP for North Buckinghamshire
1964 Purnell & Sons merge with Hazell Sun to form British Printing Corporation in response to bid by News of the World
1968 Maxwell makes unsuccessful bid for News of the World
"Not a fit and proper person"
1969 financial scandal over attempted sale of Pergamon to Steinberg's Leasco Data Processing. Maxwell censured by government, loses Pergamon and seat in Parliament
1970 establishes Maxwell Foundation in Liechtenstein
1973 UK Department of Trade & Industry report declares that he is "not a person who can be relied on to exercise proper stewardship of a publicly quoted company"
1973 Macmillan Company of New York becomes Macmillan Inc
1974 regains control of Pergamon
1980 buys 29.5% stake in British Printing Corporation (BPC)
1981 gains control of BPC, which is renamed British Printing & Communications Corporation - later Maxwell Communications Corporation (MCC)
1981 chair and chief executive of Maxwell Communications Corp
1982 buys Odhams Printers from Reed
1982 Odhams merged with Sun Printers
1982 buys 85% of Hollis
1983 unsuccessful bid for John Waddington printing, packaging and games group
Newspaper mogul
1984 buys Mirror Group Newspapers from Reed International for £93m
1984 buys Bishopsgate Trust
1984 buys 10.5% stake in Fleet newspapers
1985 sells Fleet stake to United Newspapers
1985 buys 90% stake in British Cable Services
1985 buys stake in Central TV
1985 buys Thomas Forman printers, United Printing Services, Pulman Webb Offset, Leagrave Press and Soman-Wherry Press
1985 buys new stake in Fleet
1985 buys stake in Britannia Arrow (formerly Slater Walker Securities)
1986 buys Orbis Book Publishing
1986 buys 24.6% stake in Extel
1986 buys Philip Hill Investment Trust
1986 buys Webb printing group and Providence Gravure in US
1986 increases Central TV stake to 20%
1987 buys stake in US printer RR Donnelley
1987 fails to gain control of Extel, sells stake
1987 British Printing & Communications Corp renamed Maxwell Communications Corporation
1987 joins Bouygues consortium, takes 12.5% stake in French tv channel TF1
1987 bids for Harcourt Brace Jovanovich
1987 buys Standard Catalogue Co
1987 launches London Daily News as a 24-hour newspaper
1987 buys Diversified Printing Corp in US
1987 buys Oyez Press and Aberdeen Uni Press
1987 buys stakes in Elsevier, BP, Midland Bank, Singer & Friedlander
1987 buys stakes in Henry Ansbacher, Hachette, Warburg, Quebecor, Sainsbury, Storehouse, Bell and Wolters Kluwer
1987 buys stakes in Bell Resources, Bell & Howell, Norton Opax, Guinness Peat, Nova Pharmaceuticals
1987 buys 14.9% stake in De La Rue printing group
1987 buys stake in Donohoe pulp & paper for C$157m
1987 buys United Trade Press
1987 buys Nimbus Records
1987 buys Columbia Computing Services
1988 increases stake in Norton Opax to 23.6%
1988 buys Evan Steadman Communications for £5.2m
1988 buys Science Research Associates
1988 buys stake in Christian Dior
1988 buys stake in Societe Generale for £44m
1988 buys stake in Control Data and in National Computing Systems
1988 buys Home & Law Magazines
1988 buys 10% of Canal 10
1988 buys Armed Forces Journal International
1988 buys 67% of Imprimerie Francois
1988 buys stake in Banco Commercial Portuguese
1988 buys stake in Havas
1988 buys stake in Euris investment trust
1988 buys AGB Research for £134m
1988 buys Official Airline Guide (OAG) from Dun & Bradstreet for US$750m
Collapse
1988 buys US Macmillan for US$2.6bn
1988 appoints self as chairman and chief executive of US Macmillan
1989 buys stake in Paramount (later absorbed by Viacom)
1989 sells Macdonald Children's Books, Macdonald Educational, Beehive, and Purnell to Simon & Schuster
1989 buys Sphere Books from Pearson's Penguin for £13.75m
1989 buys Prentice Hall Information Services
1989 buys Merrill Publishing
1989 Pergamon sells educational publishing arm of EJ Arnold to Thomson's Nelson
1989 buys stake in Scottish Investment Trust
1990 launches European
1990 investigative journalist explores allegations that Maxwell-controlled pension schemes have been fiddled
1990 sells 21% stake in De La Rue for £74m
1991 buys New York Daily News from Tribune
1991 sells Pergamon to Elsevier for £440m
1991 sells Maxwell Macmillan Professional & Business Reference Publishing Division to Thomson for £33m
1991 floats MGN as public company
1991 Maxwell goes overboard
Aftermath
1992 Maxwell's companies file for bankruptcy protection in UK and US, remaining stakes in other groups sold
1997 Mirror Group buys Midland Independent Newspapers for £297m
1999 Trinity merges with Mirror Group Newspapers in deal worth £1.3bn
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