Microsoft Corp has acquired a minority stake in Oxford UK-based Helicon Publishing Ltd, one of the UK’s few remaining independent UK reference publishers. Helicon declined to divulge the exact size of the investment, but managing director David Attwooll described it as substantial. Original investers, including German reference and educational publisher Klett, have re- invested in the company as part of its re-financing deal. Formed in 1992 as the result of a management buyout of the Hutchinson reference business from Random House UK Ltd, Helicon’s published works include the only British-compiled encyclopedia on CD-ROM – the Hutchinson Multimedia encyclopedia, a full US encyclopaedia database and Webster’s Interactive Encyclopedia in the US, all continuously updated. It is still a relatively small enterprise, and Attwooll said he expects revenues to top 3m British pounds for this financial year, with about one third coming from electronic publishing and the remainder from hard copy book sales. The company expects electronic book sales to account for about 50% of its total revenue by 1998. In addition to its equity stake, Microsoft has signed two more agreements with the firm. A non-exclusive royalty-bearing license will allow it to use certain Helicon reference materials, particularly within its science and history titles, for future on-line applications via the Microsoft Network, and both companies will work together to develop specific projects. Attwooll stressed the company would continue to develop products independently of Microsoft, and would work with other software developers. Peter Mollman, formerly president of Microsoft’s World Book Encyclopaedia joins Helicon as a non-executive director.
