S&P Global

19th century

The predecessor companies of S&P Global have histories dating to 1888, when James H. McGraw purchased the American Journal of Railway Appliances. He continued to add further publications, eventually establishing The McGraw Publishing Company in 1899.

20th century

John A. Hill had also produced several technical and trade publications and in 1902 formed his own business, The Hill Publishing Company. In 1909, both men, having known each other's interests, agreed upon an alliance and combined the book departments of their publishing companies into The McGraw–Hill Book Company. John Hill served as president, with James McGraw as vice-president. In 1917, the remaining parts of each business were merged into The McGraw–Hill Publishing Company.

In 1964, after Hill died, both McGraw–Hill Publishing Company and McGraw–Hill Book Company merged into McGraw–Hill, Inc. McGraw–Hill purchased credit rating agency Standard & Poor's from Paul Talbot Babson in 1966. In 1979, McGraw–Hill acquired Byte magazine from its owner/publisher Virginia Williamson, who then became a vice-president of McGraw–Hill. In 1986, McGraw–Hill bought out competitor The Economy Company, then the United States' largest publisher of educational material. The buyout made McGraw–Hill the largest educational publisher in the United States.

In 1994, McGraw–Hill's broadcasting division signed a deal with ABC, due partly to the fact that its stations in San Diego (KGTV) and Indianapolis (WRTV) had already been aligned with the network, and that Denver (KMGH-TV) and Bakersfield (KERO-TV) joined the ABC family (Bakersfield sister station KERO-TV was also involved in the deal between McGraw–Hill and ABC; however, that station had to wait for its affiliation contract with CBS to expire in March 1996, before it could finally switch to ABC).

21st century

In 2009, McGraw Hill sold Business Week to Bloomberg.

In October 2011, McGraw–Hill announced it was selling its entire television station group to the E. W. Scripps Company for $212 million. The sale was completed in December 2011. It had been involved in broadcasting since 1972, when it purchased four television stations from a division of Time Inc. The sale included McGraw–Hill Broadcasting's stations KERO-TV and KZKC-LP Bakersfield; KGTV and KZSD-LP San Diego; KZCS-LP Colorado Springs; flagship station KMGH-TV and KZCO-LD Denver; KZFC-LP Fort Collins; and WRTV Indianapolis.

In November 2012, McGraw–Hill announced it was selling its entire education division, known as McGraw–Hill Education to Apollo Global Management for $2.5 billion. In March 2013, McGraw–Hill announced it had completed the sale for $2.4 billion cash. In May 2013, shareholders of McGraw–Hill voted to change the company's name to McGraw Hill Financial.

In September 2014, McGraw–Hill divested the subsidiary McGraw–Hill Construction to Symphony Technology Group for US$320 million. The sale included Engineering News-Record, Architectural Record, Dodge and Sweet's. McGraw–Hill Construction has been renamed Dodge Data & Analytics.

Acquisitions

During the course of its history, McGraw Hill and from 2016, S&P Global has expanded significantly through acquisition, not just within the publishing industry but also into other areas such as financial services (the purchase of Standard & Poor's in 1966) and broadcasting (the 1972 acquisition of Time-Life Broadcasting). The publishing and education assets are a part of McGraw–Hill Education from the company separation in 2013:

This list only includes acquisitions made by McGraw–Hill, not its subsidiaries. McGraw–Hill typically does not release financial information regarding its acquisitions or divestitures.

Divestitures

After acquiring a portfolio of diverse companies, McGraw Hill later divested itself of many units to form McGraw Hill Financial which is now S&P Global:

This list only includes divestitures made by S&P Global, not its subsidiaries.