The Thomson Corporation grew from a single Canadian newspaper, the
Timmins Daily Press, acquired in 1934 by
Roy Thomson (later to become 1st Baron Thomson of Fleet), into a global media concern. Thomson acquired his first non-Canadian newspaper, the
Independent of St. Petersburg, Florida, in 1952. He was told by the UK Government that to qualify for a peerage, in keeping with other press barons in London, he would have to reside in the UK. Accordingly, he moved to Edinburgh and invited newspaper owners to sell to him. In this expansion in the United Kingdom the first to come forward and be bought was
The Scotsman in 1953. He had no experience of television but saw the profits it made in the US and successfully founded
Scottish Television in 1957, locating its headquarters and studios in the
Theatre Royal, Glasgow. He founded the Thomson Organization in 1959. In the 1960s, Thomson's UK publishing realm expanded to include Thomson Publication (UK), a consumer magazine and book publishing house, and
The Times. In 1965, Thomson Newspapers, Ltd. was formed as a publicly traded company in Canada. Roy Thomson's prolific endeavours in publishing earned him the hereditary title
Lord Thomson of Fleet in 1964. Thomson's interests moved beyond publishing with the creation of
Thomson Travel and acquisition of
Britannia Airways in 1965 and 1971, and a foray into a consortium exploring the
North Sea for oil and gas. Thomson used its oil profits to buy small newspapers in the United States, starting with the acquisition of
Brush-Moore Newspapers in 1967 for $72 million, at the time the largest sale of newspapers. By the end of the 1970s, Thomson Newspapers' circulation in the United States had surpassed the 1 million mark. In 1974, it was rumored to be planning a takeover of
Speidel Newspapers. The Thomson Organization was reorganised into the
International Thomson Organization in 1978 in order to move its operating base from Britain to Canada, so that it would not be subject to British monopolies legislation, foreign‐exchange controls and dividend limitation. The International Thomson Organization and Thomson Newspapers merged in 1989, creating the Thomson Corporation. Over the years, the company has withdrawn from its holdings in the oil and gas business, the travel industry and department stores. When
Kenneth Thomson took over from his father Roy in 1976, the company was worth about $500 million. At Kenneth's death in June 2006, the company was valued at about $29.3 billion. Starting in the mid-1990s, Thomson invested further in specialised information services (but this time providing them in digital format) and began selling off its newspapers. That was about the time Richard J. Harrington, an accountant, became chief executive officer of the company. One of the first moves came when Thomson spent $3.4 billion to acquire the
West Publishing Company, a legal information provider in
Eagan, Minnesota. Also in 2003, Thomson acquired the software company Elite Information Group and medical education company Gardiner-Caldwell. Also in 2003, Thomson sold its medical magazine publishing units to Advanstar Communications. Thomson also acquired the publisher Techstreet. In 2004, Thomson acquired
Tradeweb. In late 2004, the company sold its Thomson Media group to
Investcorp. The B2B publishing group, which features such titles as
American Banker, National Mortgage News, and
The Bond Buyer, was renamed
SourceMedia. In 2005, Thomson acquired medical education company Physicians World. In October 2006, the company confirmed it would sell the Thomson Learning market group in three parts. The first part, corporate education and training (NETg), has agreed to be sold to
Skillsoft for $285 million.
Apax announced its acquisition of Thomson's higher education business on 11 May 2007, for $7.5 billion in cash assets. In 2007, Thomson sold Thomson Medical Education (including Physicians' World and Gardiner-Caldwell) to private equity firm ABRY Partners. The group was renamed KnowledgePoint360. ==Brands==