S&P had sales of $2.03 billion last year, the most since at least 2009, Bloomberg data show. The unit accounted for 45 percent of McGraw-Hill’s revenue and 56 percent of operating income in 2012, according to the data.
McGraw-Hill faces lawsuits from 16 states and the District of Columbia in addition to the federal case, which may not go to trial for “two to three years,” Kenneth Vittor, the company’s chief counsel, said on the conference call Feb. 12.
For McGraw, whose board hasn’t named a successor, fighting the government will help determine his legacy.
“This is much more than a job for him; it’s his heritage,” Kathryn Wylde, president and chief executive officer of Partnership for New York City, a nonprofit organization of the city’s business leaders, where McGraw has served as a board member for a dozen years, said in a telephone interview Feb. 19. “The impact and implications of these accusations are more difficult than if you were a hired-hand CEO.”
The Justice Department case is U.S. v. McGraw-Hill, 13- 00779, U.S. District Court, Central District of California (Santa Ana).