2700 Lake Cook Rd., Riverwoods 60015, 708-940-4600
Date of founding: 1927
Fiscal year-end: Dec. 31
Chief executive: Richard T. Merrill, 62, elected 1980
1990 cash compensation: $498,950
Shares owned: 16,044 of 17,608,002 Class A shares and 16,044 of 17,608,002 Class B shares outstanding
Employees: 7,613; 1,600 in Illinois
Foreign sales: 14 percent of $716 million total 1990 revenues
May 1, 1991 value of $1,000 in company stock:
Purchased May 1, 1990: $449
Purchased May 1, 1986: $387
Commerce Clearing House publishes loose-leaf news reports, primarily in the area of tax and business law; offers corporate services to the legal market, financial managers and credit managers; and provides computer services, chiefly for processing income tax returns. The firm`s reports, available through annual subscriptions, provide updated information on the complexities and changes in tax laws and regulations. In 1990, the legal information services posted a 50 percent increas in profits.
CCH, a majority of whose voting stock is controlled by the Thorne family, created a nonvoting Class B common earlier this year to make it easier to raise capital without diluting the Thornes` control. Wall Street hasn`t liked the move, however; after the split, the combined value of the two classes declined by 20 percent.
The CCH product best known to the general public is Facts on File, reference books and compilations of facts and newspaper articles sold to libraries and schools.
Edward L. Massie, president of the publishing group, will succeed Richard T. Merrill as CEO July 1.
