Lexis Sums Up

Here is this morning’s Interim Management Statement from Reed Elsevier. Note the interested bolded statement on R&D in the legal research sector.

LexisNexis has seen a modest decline in underlying revenues with softer legal and corporate markets in the US and internationally. Overall revenues benefit from a full year contribution from the ChoicePoint business acquired in September last year.

The US Legal Markets business has seen a continuation of the first half trends. Revenues in the core law firm market have held up, although these are under some late cycle pressure reflecting the downturn in the legal services industry. Directory listings revenues remain well behind last year although less so than in the first half with the unwinding of adverse publication phasing effects. Corporate, government and academic markets remain lower, in particular in the Nexis news and business service. Progress is being made in the significant investment programme to build the next generation of legal research and practice solutions and supporting infrastructure.

The International business sees similar late cycle trends in legal markets. Online revenues continue to grow well as firms increasingly adopt online services. Print sales are however well down as firms look to cut costs and come to rely increasingly on online services.