According to Liblicense, Peter Suber’s blog, and the Guardian, Springer Science and Business Media is believed to be preparing the business for sale. Candover and Cinven, are the private equity companies that own Springer and, reportedly, buyers have until the end of next week to register their interest. According to Candover, Springer is worth 1.65 billion Euros. Springer is more stable, apparently since it does not rely heavily on advertising revenue as many other publishers. Springer, which has published many leading lights in science (Marie Curie, Albert Einstein to mention a few) was founded by Julius Springer in 1842.
http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/2009/03/springer-on-block.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/mar/26/publisher-springer-put-up-fo...
http://www.cinven.com
http://www.candoverinvestments.com
http://www.library.yale.edu/~llicense/index.shtml