McGraw-Hill cuts 550 jobs; may hive off BusinessWeek

Global information services provider McGraw-Hill Cos, hit by declining business in its education, financial services and media ventures, has cut 550 jobs across the group.

The publishing group said it has incurred a restructuring charge in the second quarter of 2009 of $24.3 million (pre-tax), consisting primarily of employee severance.

The company also reported a reversal of $9.1 million for changes in severance estimates from prior restructuring initiatives, resulting in a net restructuring charge of $15.2 million (pre-tax), in the quarter. After taxes, the net charge was $9.7 million, or $0.03 per diluted share of second quarter 2009 earnings, the company said in a release.

McGraw-Hill, which publishes leading business information brands such as Standard & Poor's, McGraw-Hill Education, BusinessWeek and JD Power and Associate, said the deepest cutbacks were in the education unit, which lost 340 positions, followed by information and media with 125 and financial services with 85.

McGraw-Hill reported a 22 per cent drop in first quarter profit in April. The group is set to unveil second quarter results at a conference call on 28 July.

Earlier this week, the company signalled that it might seek a buyer for BusinessWeek, saying that it was looking at strategic options for the business magazine.