Which companies did Robert Maxwell own in the U.S. educational publishing sector and what were their brand names?

1. Maxwell’s U.S. play: SRA as “the centerpiece”

When Maxwell moved decisively into U.S. education publishing he purchased Science Research Associates from IBM, and publicly described SRA as “the centerpiece of our educational publishing business in the U.S.” — a direct statement in contemporaneous reporting ^[1]. SRA was a long-established Chicago-based publisher of elementary/secondary curricula, vocational tests and college textbooks; Maxwell’s own team indicated they would focus on its testing and professional publishing strengths ^[1].

2. The Macmillan buy and the school-imprint roll-up

Maxwell’s larger American foothold came with the purchase of Macmillan Inc. by Maxwell Communication Corporation; Macmillan’s school publishing operations (including imprints such as Glencoe, Barnell Loft, Benziger) were explicitly folded into a Macmillan/McGraw‑Hill School Publishing joint operation in 1989 ^{[3] [2]}. Reporting at the time framed that new entity as the nation’s second-largest textbook publisher with combined sales of about $440 million the prior year ^[2].

3. Brand names tied to Maxwell in U.S. K–12 and testing

The sources link Maxwell to the SRA brand and to Macmillan’s school imprints — Glencoe, Barnell Loft and Benziger — which were part of the Macmillan school operations merged in the McGraw‑Hill joint venture ^{[1] [3]}. Contemporary trade press and the Los Angeles Times specifically named the Macmillan/McGraw‑Hill School Publishing Co. as the new brand for the K–12 joint operation ^[2].

4. How contemporaries described Maxwell’s strategy

Coverage describes Maxwell seeking scale in U.S. education by buying established assets: SRA for testing and vocational materials, and Macmillan for a broad catalog of school textbooks and related imprints ^{[1] [3]}. The Los Angeles Times reported Maxwell agreed to a 15‑year stand‑down on hostile offers to McGraw‑Hill as part of the joint-venture negotiations, showing a strategic, transactional approach to building presence rather than creating wholly new consumer brands ^[2].

5. What the record does not say (important caveats)

Available sources do not provide a comprehensive roster of every company or niche imprint Maxwell may have owned in the U.S. educational sector beyond SRA and Macmillan/Macmillan’s school imprints mentioned ^{[1] [3]}. Secondary summaries (encyclopedias and biographies) discuss Maxwell’s broader publishing empire and Pergamon/Pergamon Press in scientific publishing, but these sources do not enumerate additional U.S. K–12 brand names directly tied to him in the provided reporting ^{[4] [5] [6]}.

6. Two perspectives on Maxwell’s impact

Business reporting at the time treated Maxwell as an aggressive consolidator expanding recognizable brands (SRA, Macmillan imprints) and creating new corporate arrangements like Macmillan/McGraw‑Hill School Publishing Co. ^{[2] [1]}. Biographical and later analyses position Maxwell as a transformational figure in academic and scientific publishing (Pergamon), but those accounts focus more on academic/scientific markets and do not add distinct U.S. K–12 brand names to the record presented here ^{[4] [5] [6]}.

Conclusion — succinct ledger for the question asked

Based on the supplied reporting, Robert Maxwell owned Science Research Associates (SRA) in the U.S. and controlled Macmillan Inc., whose school-publishing imprints (including Glencoe, Barnell Loft and Benziger) were merged into the Macmillan/McGraw‑Hill School Publishing Co.; additional specific U.S. education-brand names are not listed in the available sources ^{[1] [3] [2]}.