ProQuest

The story begins not with software, but with microfilm. In 1938, a University of Michigan graduate named Eugene Power started a company called University Microfilms in Ann Arbor. His idea was to use microphotography to preserve valuable books and, critically, to publish doctoral dissertations, which had a limited audience. This created a new business model for distributing niche scholarly work. For decades, the company grew by expanding its microfilm archives, eventually capturing newspapers and periodicals. A major turning point came in 1962 when Xerox acquired the company, bringing new resources to the growing information business. The business continued to evolve, changing hands again when it was bought by Bell & Howell in 1985. As technology shifted, so did the company. It launched its first CD-ROM databases under a new brand: ProQuest. This marked the beginning of its transition from a microfilm producer to an electronic publishing powerhouse, making vast archives searchable and accessible to libraries and universities worldwide. A pivotal chapter began in 2021 when the analytics company Clarivate announced it would acquire ProQuest. The massive $5.3 billion deal, which closed in December of that year, brought together ProQuest's enormous content library with Clarivate's research and analytics tools, like the Web of Science. The combination aimed to create an end-to-end platform for researchers, from discovery to publication and analysis.