LexisNexis buys regulatory news wire MLex

LexisNexis has bought the regulatory news wire MLex for an undisclosed sum, reports Nicholas Hirst and Ryan Heath of Politico.

Hirst and Heath write, “MLex is a subscription-based wire service providing breaking news and intelligence about regulatory developments.

“Established in July 2005 by former Bloomberg journalist Robert McLeod, an Australian, and Briton Duncan Lumsden, the service focused first on EU competition law and policy, but has since expanded into areas like telecoms and energy and into jurisdictions such as the U.S. and China.

“LexisNexis approached MLex towards the beginning of 2015 and presented ‘a really compelling case,’ McLeod told POLITICO.

“‘They invented online law and compared to them our marketing and IT budgets were rounding errors,’ he said. ‘We’ve been achieving growth of 20-35 percent per year but we’ve been doing it with one hand behind our back.'”

Read more here. In an email to Talking Biz News, McLeod said that the company has about two dozen business journalists in the United States and about 60 globally. “That may be one or two out depending on where we are on hiring ‎a couple of posts,” he said. “I reckon we’ll add another 40-50 over the next two years worldwide. This is total editorial, ie, including editors.”