Big news for those in the pharmaceutical industry. IMS Health Inc., a major information provider with the most excellent ticker symbol of RX, will be acquired by Dutch-headquartered VNU. VNU also owns ACNielsen, Nielsen Media Research, several trade publications, and the Online Information trade show, to be held this year November 29 to December 1st. The U.S. business coverage of the purchase displayed a marked lack of ability to translate euros to dollars. The Chicago Tribune said $6.57 billion, the Boston Globe had $6.3 billion, and Reuters pegged it at $6.9 billion. The press release gave the price in euros (5.8 billion), which the companies converted to $7.0 billion.

John Blossom had an excellent analysis on his blog, speculating if this was the future of trade publishing. I found his comments particularly interesting since it ties in so well with an article I’m writing for ONLINE about the future of directory publishing.