Ebsco Industries Inc.

Ebsco Industries Inc., doing business as Ebsco Information Services, is an Alabama-headquartered international organization that supplies academic databases, e-journal subscriptions, e-books, and digital research content to federal agencies as a prime contractor (100% of recent awards) across defense, civilian, and health agencies. The vendor competes in the full-and-open marketplace with no SBA set-aside designations and holds no minority or disadvantaged-business certifications.

Ebsco's core federal capability is content aggregation and library resource management. The vendor delivers online databases (Academic Search Premier, MEDLINE Complete, ProQuest platforms), electronic journal subscriptions across medical, scientific, and social-science disciplines, and specialized research collections to support agency missions ranging from healthcare delivery and regulatory compliance to workforce training and scientific research. Representative work includes a $6.76 million Food and Drug Administration BPA call order for FY24 library resources spanning online databases, e-books, and journals through December 2024; a $1.36 million firm fixed-price delivery order from the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Chief Information Officer for e-journal subscription services through December 2027 under the GSA Multiple Award Schedule; and a $2.8 million Department of Veterans Affairs delivery order for periodical subscriptions running through December 2027 to Veterans Integrated Service Network 16.

Customer concentration is heavily weighted toward the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Veterans Health Administration across multiple Integrated Service Networks. The FDA accounts for $41.9 million in combined potential value across 34 awards (covering 9% of the portfolio by count but 22% of the top-five customers' aggregate value). The Department of Veterans Affairs Veterans Health Administration collectively dominates the award count — Veterans Integrated Service Network 10 leads with 19 awards valued at $10.6 million combined potential, followed by VISN 8 with 9 awards ($2.9 million), VISN 12 with 11 awards ($1.2 million), and other VISNs contributing smaller individual orders. The Air Force ranks first by raw award count with 164 awards, but individual order sizes average substantially lower than FDA and VA orders. The top five customers account for 37% of awards by count and 31% of the top-five customers' combined potential value, signaling significant concentration in high-volume, lower-unit-value subscription renewals from VA networks alongside larger aggregate FDA commitments.

Ebsco's vehicle position is anchored to the GSA Multiple Award Schedule, where the vendor holds seat and places 81 task orders valued at $91.5 million in combined potential value. The vendor also operates under several large indefinite-delivery contracts: IDV V776P695 carries 123 task orders ($12.2 million combined potential value), Basic Ordering Agreement F3360082D0313 carries 50 task orders, IDC 223038007 carries 45 task orders ($1.3 million), and GSA Federal Supply Schedule GS00F02300 carries 33 task orders. Recent BPA vehicles include single-award agreements with the Veterans Integrated Service Network 8 (ceiling $1.41 million through September 2026), Army War College (ceiling $250,000 through June 2029), and Department of State Bureau of Administration (ceiling $1.5 million, established July 2026 for serials management to the Ralph J. Bunche Library). These vehicles position Ebsco to place task orders and call orders across the federal enterprise without open competition for individual orders once the parent vehicle is awarded.

Activity has contracted in recent years after peaking in 2022. The vendor received 18 awards in 2022, declining to 12 awards in both 2023 and 2024, and dropping to 3 awards each in 2025 and 2026 (the 2026 figure reflects data through October 15). Combined potential value across all 802 awards stands at $187 million, with $84.4 million (45%) obligated. Fifteen awards face ultimate completion inside the next twenty-four months, carrying combined potential value of $7.6 million and exposing Ebsco to recompete risk on active VA and other agency orders expiring by October 2028.

Ebsco operates 100% as a prime contractor with no subcontractor engagement or subordinate award activity in the visible award portfolio. Service Contract Inventory data covering federal service contracts above the $150,000 threshold shows $30.8 million in SCI-reportable invoiced revenue across FY2022–FY2025 ($10.4 million in FY2022, $8.7 million in FY2023, $9.2 million in FY2024, and $2.5 million in FY2025). FTE trajectory in SCI records is negligible (0.1 FTEs reported in FY2022, rounding to 0.0 FTEs in subsequent years), consistent with Ebsco's subscription-delivery model, which is content-driven rather than labor-intensive. Government-paid hourly rates derived from SCI invoicing show extreme variance — 10th percentile $6,147/hr, median $50,217/hr, 90th percentile $148,989/hr — a spread reflecting the mix of flat-fee subscription orders and higher-value content-management services within the SCI dataset. SCI-reportable work carries zero average sub-hours share, meaning Ebsco performs all billed services directly with no subcontractor labor component.

The corporate structure includes ten named subsidiaries and affiliated entities, among them Yankee Book Peddler Incorporated (operating as Gobi Library Solutions, a book-supply and content-distribution platform), The H.W. Wilson Company Inc. (a periodical and reference-content publisher), and Ebsco Information Services LLC (the operating division). These subsidiaries and affiliates provide Ebsco with integrated capabilities in content publishing, subscription aggregation, and library-services delivery, allowing the parent to bundle digital content, print materials, and management services across single contracts. The vendor's top NAICS codes are Book, Periodical, and Newspaper Merchant Wholesalers (146 awards) and Periodical Publishers (111 awards), reflecting the subscription-retail and content-publishing nature of the business. The portfolio spans 98 distinct federal agencies, but the award distribution is highly skewed to VA networks and the FDA, with military branches (Air Force, Army, Navy) and civilian agencies (State, Transportation, Labor, Energy) contributing smaller recurring orders consistent with institutional library and research database subscriptions.