Keeping up with all the mergers and acquisitions in scholarly publishing and scholarly infrastructure can be challenging! In just the past few months, we’ve seen Silverchair acquire ScholarOne from Clarivate, Sage Publishing acquire Mary Ann Liebert, Inc, and Molecular Connections acquire first Morressier and then Editorial Office. My fellow Scholarly Kitchen Chefs, Joe Esposito and Roger Schonfeld, have written about the benefits of these sorts of acquisitions for both the companies doing the consolidation and for their customers. But what about the staff at those organizations, both the acquired and the acquirers? How do they really feel?
Having survived Wiley’s acquisition of Blackwell back in 2007, I have both positive and negative feelings about the experience myself. On the plus side, I got to work with many very talented, creative, and dedicated people who I learned a lot from and would probably never have been able to meet otherwise. I also learned a lot about what it means to work for a publicly traded company, which was an invaluable — if, for me, somewhat less enjoyable – education. Less positively, the culture shock of joining forces with a very different type of company, especially when it was billed as a “merger,” was jarring at times for colleagues from both companies. Likewise the gargantuan efforts required to get the Blackwell journals side of things (where I worked) up and running on Wiley systems, while trying to minimize disruptions to our stakeholders, was challenging and, at times, frustrating for many of us.
We got there in the end, and I feel lucky to have maintained so many great relationships with Wiley colleagues past and present. But a recent conversation with Sami Benchekroun and Jignesh Bhate about Molecular Connections’ acquisition of Morressier and Editorial Office got me wondering how their staff are managing the transition process – especially as they happened in quick succession (January and February 2025 respectively). So I’m very grateful to Krishna K Chinnaiah (VP Business Development and Marketing) and Alice Ellingham (Co-founder of Editorial Office), who kindly agreed to answer my questions about how the transition is going, their experiences of acquiring and being acquired, and what they hope their shared future will look like.
Please can you tell me a bit about your roles and responsibilities pre- and post-acquisition?
Krishna K Chinnaiah: My main focus is on business development at Molecular Connections – building partnerships, expanding our global reach, and ensuring we stay ahead in a rapidly changing industry. These efforts are about winning new partnerships and nurturing them long-term. Internally, I am driving various initiatives to retain top talent and strengthen our organizational culture, as we believe this is key to delivering exceptional client outcomes. Post-acquisition, my role has expanded significantly. It’s now about integrating the unique strengths of Morressier and Editorial Office into our broader vision. It’s a bit like being the conductor of an orchestra, ensuring every instrument – from cutting-edge AI and ML-powered digital transformation to deeply personalized editorial services – plays in harmony. This is an exciting journey, and it’s incredibly rewarding to see our collective capabilities come together.
Alice Ellingham: Gill Smith, my co-founder, and I built Editorial Office from the ground up and we have done pretty much every job there is to do in a small company! In recent years, my role has been split between business development and process management, bringing over 25 years of cross-platform experience to small, medium and large publishers and societies. Our in-depth peer review knowledge and passion for best practice and customer service have seen the company grow to over 90 FTE in the past five years.
Four months in and my role hasn’t changed much (yet!). Editorial Office is operating business as usual, and the team’s focus is still to provide our current customers with the same high-quality, cost-effective editorial peer review services as we have for the last 20 years. The main difference is that I know that we now have the resources to grow faster than before with less stress on our in-house staff team. Molecular Connections have a great team of experienced editorial staff (based in their offices in India), who we are integrating into our already international team of staff and freelancers. We are used to working in different time zones, but we have now added an additional clock to the office wall!
Ensuring that this team continues to integrate and grow, with our vision fully aligned, is now a key part of my short-term responsibilities.
What has been the best thing so far about the transition?
Krishna: Honestly, it’s the people. Bringing together teams with such diverse expertise has sparked creativity and innovation. We’re already seeing the benefits – faster problem-solving, fresh ideas, and a real sense of shared purpose. It’s also been incredibly rewarding to have conversations with customers about how our combined strengths can help them tackle new challenges. Each organization brings unique capabilities – whether it’s Morressier’s leadership in research integrity or Editorial Office’s deep expertise in peer review – and harnessing that collective talent has been a highlight for me. The momentum we are generating now is laying a strong foundation for long-term success, as we unify our strengths in data science and AI — transforming data into insights — with product innovation and editorial excellence. This journey is anchored in our core belief, shaped over 25 years, that “Human is the Loop,” and powered by a stable, skilled global workforce of 3,500 professionals.
Alice:I completely agree with Krishna that the connection between the two companies is key. We are a very staff-focused company and wanted to ensure that we didn’t get ‘lost’ while integrating with a larger company. Molecular Connections’ openness and the values we share means that we still feel like the same family — just extended!
The immediate connection meant that we could quickly move forward with providing our current customers access to advanced technology with deep domain expertise. Molecular Connections have been providing cutting edge tools and innovations to publishers for decades and we now have these in our toolbox and can start to deliver more impactful solutions in a fast-moving and challenging environment. Having access to such a large and relevant technology team at Molecular Connections is a game changer!
And what has been the hardest part?
Krishna: The toughest part for me has definitely been logistics – integrating systems, aligning workflows, and ensuring that our clients see all the benefits. It’s a bit like trying to change the tires on a moving car but, with the right team in place, we’re making it happen. Beyond that, building a common values framework, maintaining transparency, and aligning our vision are critical and, while it’s not easy, we’re headed in the right direction.
Alice: For me, it’s about maintaining the personal touch for both our current and future customers. We have always been recognized for our close, hands-on support, and we want to ensure we keep that high-quality, personal service level as we grow. Balancing cutting-edge technology with personal connection isn’t always straightforward, but it’s essential — and we remain mindful of that.
Aligning expectations and building a shared culture across three organizations takes time but it’s a challenge that we’re fully committed to meeting.
Is there anything you’re especially excited or worried about?
Krishna: I’m particularly excited about the potential we have to bridge the gap between research, publishing, and data insights. By combining Morressier’s tech-forward approach, Editorial Office’s operational depth, and Molecular Connections’ strengths in big data, AI, and machine learning, we can tackle some of the industry’s most complex challenges at scale. My main concern, however, is ensuring that we don’t lose the agility and deep customer focus that made each company successful in the first place. Preserving that while scaling up is both the challenge and the opportunity.
Alice: I’m excited about the possibilities — both in our peer review work and with upcoming technologies. We have an opportunity to shape the future of peer review with an exceptional team. As the scholarly publishing industry faces significant challenges, we’re uniquely positioned to help publishers and societies of all sizes adapt, grow, and stay competitive in the years ahead.
We’re also positioned to play a critical role in product development, especially with our new flagship platform, Journal Manager. Providing editorial insight into feature design and user workflows will be key to ensuring the technology aligns with the real-world needs of journals as we continue to innovate and scale.
What do you see as the short-, medium-, and long-term benefits of the acquisition?
Krishna: Short term, we’ve already expanded our capabilities and can offer more comprehensive solutions across the research publishing lifecycle — from submission to publication to discovery. Medium term, our combined technology and operational strengths will enable us to drive innovation in peer review transparency, ethics management, and data integrity. Long term, we’re building a unified ecosystem for trusted research in the AI era, leveraging structured data, automated content enrichment, and deep domain expertise to enable faster, better decision-making.
Alice: Short term, it’s about bringing our teams together, learning from each other and ensuring our own team is happy and settled in our new, larger work environment.
Medium term, it’s about integrating workflows and building a broader customer support base. Onboarding new journals across both teams, with shared ownership and management teams, will be a huge benefit to our staff team, who have at times been over-stretched while trying to support new customers.
Long term, it’s utilizing our combined skills to innovate and redefine peer review management to provide better service to all stakeholders in peer review. Our customers want to provide better service levels to their authors, more tools and support to their Editors, while maximizing the benefit of the scholarly content that they create. We are now in a unique position to work towards this goal.
Do you have any advice for other people whose companies are acquiring or being acquired by other organizations?
Krishna: Stay open to change and keep the bigger picture in mind. Acquisitions can be tough, but they’re also a chance to reinvent yourself and your business. First, treat integration like a product launch – it needs leadership, strategy, communication, and a customer-first mindset. Second, over-communicate, even when you don’t have all the answers. People can handle ambiguity better than silence. Finally, preserve the identity and strengths of the acquired organizations while finding alignment points. The goal isn’t to erase the past, but to build a better shared future.
Alice: For us, company culture and team fit were at the top of the priority list. Editorial Office’s growth has been driven by the strength of our team and protecting that team was non-negotiable in any acquisition. Once the process begins, clear and consistent communication becomes essential. It’s important that everyone feels included, valued, and has opportunities to ask questions at every stage. Change is inevitable and framing it as a positive evolution rather than a disruption can make a significant difference. Even in the most favorable acquisitions, it’s natural for employees to feel uncertain. Being transparent about what will change — and how it may impact them — helps build trust and reduce anxiety.
We have had the invaluable benefit of working through an incredibly fast, positive and exciting acquisition and are looking forward to the next chapter.
