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Reed Elsevier profit falls
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August 9, 2000: 5:10 a.m. ET
Publishing firm says it may bid for U.S.-based Harcourt General
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LONDON (CNNfn) - Anglo-Dutch publisher Reed Elsevier PLC posted a 5 percent drop in first-half profit Wednesday, as it increased spending on putting its publications on the Web and footed the bill for a restructuring program begun earlier this year.
The company, which owns the Lexis-Nexis data search service and Cahners Business Information, also said it is considering making a bid for Harcourt General Inc. (H: Research, Estimates), a U.S. textbook publisher that put itself up for sale in June.
"Whenever any major publishing asset comes up for sale like this, we of course look at them and this is the case here," Chief Executive Crispin Davis said in a conference call announcing the financial results. "As far as other acquisitions for the rest of the year, we continue to look for bolt-on, fill-in acquisitions that will accelerate our growth momentum in existing businesses."
Reed Elsevier earned £351 million ($528 million) before taxes during the first six months of the year, from £371 million in the first half of 1999. The results were slightly better than the £324 million-to-£340 million that analysts polled by Reuters had expected.
Operating profit slipped 3 percent to £394 million ($593 million), also slightly beating analysts' expectations.
 First-half sales rose 6 percent to £1.79 billion ($2.7 billion).
Reed Elsevier, which is jointly owned by London-based Reed International PLC (REED) and Amsterdam-based Elsevier NV, announced in February that it would cut 1,500 jobs as part of a restructuring program to save £170 million a year. The company said Wednesday it expects to be ahead of its £130 million ($195 million) cost savings target this year by about £10 million.
"In February, we laid out in some detail our strategic priorities to turn around Reed Elsevier's performance," Davis said. "Execution against those plans is firmly on track and we are increasingly confident that our strategy will deliver the superior growth and shareholder returns that we have targeted."
In December, Reed said it would write off £250 million over two years to focus the company on three areas - business-to-business publishing, scientific and legal information. Davis, who took charge last September, said that the company would boost spending on new product development by £150 million to £200 million a year.
Shares in Reed rose 23 pence, or 4.4 percent, to 550 pence in early trading on the London stock exchange. 
-- from staff and wire reports
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Reed Elsevier
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