Maxwell Communication Corporation
Maxwell Communication Corporation plc was a leading British media business. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. History. The company was established in 1964 when "Hazell Sun" merged with Purnell & Sons to form the "British Printing Corporation". In 1967, the "British Printing Corporation" merged its magazines into Haymarket Group. During the 1970s the "British Printing Corporation" was involved in many disputes with trade unions. In 1978 such a dispute led to "The Times" and "Sunday Times" not being published for 10 months. In July 1981, Robert Maxwell  launched a dawn raid on the Company acquiring a stake of 29%; the following year he secured full control of it. He changed the name of the company to "British Printing & Communications Corporation" in March 1982 and to "Maxwell Communication Corporation" in October 1987. The company acquired Macmillan Publishers, a large US publisher, in 1988. It went on to buy Science Research Associates and the Official Airline Guide later that year. The company went into administration in 1991 following the death of Robert Maxwell. Its properties were sold to various media companies. McGraw Hill acquired that part of Science Research  Associates it did not already own outright, OAG was acquired by Reed Elsevier, while Macmillan was folded into Simon & Schuster. In 1999, British courts determined that Coopers & Lybrand made gross errors during their audits of the Maxwell group of companies and fined Coopers & Lybrand a record £3.3 million.