US Edition The group has scrapped efforts to sell its trade-magazine business after bids for it fell by almost half the original mooted £1.2bn, amid a slumping economy and frozen credit markets.
Reed, which first announced plans to sell the division in February, had offered vendor financing as an incentive to buyers in difficult credit markets.
The auction, which attracted mainly private equity interest, has been viewed as a test of whether deals of this size can be carried out in the midst of a downturn.
The failure to sell the business will no doubt come as a blow to Sir Crispin Davis, the outgoing chief executive of Reed Elsevier, who is understood to have been keen to make the deal happen before he leaves the group
in March. He wanted to use the proceeds to repay debt taken on in the $3.5bn purchase of ChoicePoint, a provider of data services to the insurance industry.
Bidders for RBI included Bain Capital, a consortium of TPG and DLJ Merchant Banking Partners, and Apollo.
Bain is understood to have been the frontrunner in the past week.
Reed Elsevier will try to sell Reed Business Information again "in the medium term," when conditions are more favourable, the company said.
Some said that the decision may mean that Reed Elsevier's credit rating gets downgraded. However, Fitch Ratings said this will not affect Reed Elsevier's credit ratings or outlook, as this possibility is already reflected in its current ratings.