History
Since its founding by Roy Thomson, 1st Baron Thomson of Fleet, Thomson's history has developed alongside the media age. By the end of the 1950s, Thomson had grown from a single Canadian newspaper, The Timmins Daily Press, into a global media concern. It held several prominent newspapers in the United Kingdom, including The Sunday Times and The Scotsman, and it owned Scottish Television.
In the 1960s, Thomson's publishing realm expanded further 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 endeavors in publishing had earned him a hereditary title, Lord Thomson of Fleet. Yet, 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. The merger of Thomson Newspapers and the International Thomson Organization in 1989 created 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Over the years, the company has withdrawn from its holdings in the oil and gas business, the travel industry and department stores.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.
Read more about this topic: The Thomson Corporation
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