R.R. Donnelley cements EDGAR Online partnership
Jinfo Blog

By Penny Crossland

Abstract

R.R. Donnelley has gone from strength to strength in the last 18 months, moving away from its roots as a print business to becoming a self-styled integrated communications provider for the B2B sector.

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R.R. Donnelley has gone from strength to strength in the last 18 months, moving away from its roots as a print business to becoming a self-styled integrated communications provider for the B2B sector.

As reported by LiveWire last year, the firm acquired Journalism Online and its Press+ payment platform for online publishers, LibreDigital, a specialist in digital content distribution and Sequence Personal, which has developed software that helps in customising digital publications from selected content. Other recent acquisitions have included Helium, a freelance content marketplace, 8touches, involved in online marketing tools for the real estate market and Nimblefish Technologies, a multi-channel marketing services provider.

The same week R.R. Donnelley’s closed one of its printing companies, based in Danbury Connecticut, it announced the acquisition of EDGAR Online, signalling a move into the financial data space. Valued at $70.5 million, the deal is expected to close during the third quarter of this year. In the accompanying press release, Donnelley’s CEO stated that with this purchase, the firm has in “every segment that we serve….a full set of resources for creating, managing, producing, distributing and even monetizing content."

The EDGAR Online purchase is not surprising and makes a good fit for Donnelley not least because the two companies have been partners for many years. Since 2008, EDGAR has provided XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) services for RR Donnelley’s Financial Services offering; XBRL being the online reporting standard required of all US public companies by the SEC. The partnership has a portal called TryXBRL.

Industry commentators have however expressed some concerns over the acquisition, notably Miles Jennin on the Seeking Alpha site. While Donnelly will have been attracted to EDGAR’s development plans for an investor analytics and GRC (governance, risk & compliance) cloud-based platform, Jennin worries that these development plans have not been adequately explained to shareholders.

As it turns out, EDGAR shareholders have worries of a different kind. A week after the announcement of the Donnelley/EDGAR acquisition an investigation was announced into whether EDGAR shares were sold at too low a price. Now it is up to the lawyers to decide if the EDGAR Board of Directors did their job adequately in selling the company and if shareholder value was maximised.

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