ProQuest's Services and Offerings - ProQuest provides applications and information services for libraries. - They offer access to dissertations, theses, ebooks, newspapers, periodicals, historical collections, governmental archives, cultural archives, and other aggregated databases. - ProQuest's content is estimated to be around 125 billion digital pages. - They offer tools for discovery and citation management. - ProQuest platforms allow library users to search, manage, use, and share research.

ProQuest's Business Ventures - ProQuest was founded as a microfilm publisher. - They began publishing doctoral dissertations in 1939 and have published over 3 million searchable dissertations and theses. - ProQuest is designated as an offsite digital archive for the United States Library of Congress. - They provide scholarly content including dissertations and theses, primary source material, ebooks, scholarly journals, historical and current newspapers and periodicals, and data sources. - ProQuest also offers a Video Preservation and Discovery Service for libraries to preserve and provide access to their audio and video collections.

ProQuest's Acquisitions and Subsidiaries - ProQuest operates under various names, including Bowker, which provides bibliographic information management solutions. - Dialog is an online information service with over 1.4 billion unique records curated for researchers in corporate, business, and government fields. - EBL (Ebook Library) is an ebook aggregator serving academic, corporate, and research libraries. - Ebrary offers access to ebook collections tailored for various types of libraries. - ProQuest acquired these businesses and expanded its services.

ProQuest's History and Growth - ProQuest was founded in 1938 as University Microfilms by Eugene Power. - The company initially focused on microfilm products and later shifted to electronic publishing. - Xerox acquired the company in 1962 and changed its name several times before it was purchased by Bell & Howell in 1985. - In the 1980s, ProQuest began producing CD-ROMs for periodical abstracts and indexes. - The company continued to expand through acquisitions, including Chadwyck-Healey, Serials Solutions, and Copley Publishing Group.

ProQuest's Financial and Legal Issues - ProQuest experienced overstatements of its net income from 2000 to 2005, resulting in a cumulative overstatement of pre-tax profits by $129.9 million. - In 2008, ProQuest's CFO settled SEC charges related to the earnings overstatements. - The company also acquired Norman Ross Publishing in 2001 and bigchalk.com in 2002. - In 2005, three ProQuest executives formed National Archive Publishing Co, a distribution company. - ProQuest's growth and expansion have been accompanied by financial and legal challenges.