Merger Mania Hits Publishing World

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Publishers in Merger Talks [New York Times]

Summary: Riverdeep, an Irish educational software company, is about to close a deal to acquire textbook publisher Houghton Mifflin for approximately $3.5 billion, including debt. The Boston based publisher is currently owned by three private equity firms: Thomas H. Lee Partners, Bain Capital and the Blackstone Group. These firms purchased Houghton Mifflin from Vivendi in 2002 for about $1.7 billion, the same price the European conglomerate had paid a year earlier. The merger is expected to help both companies more effectively challenge competitors such as McGraw-Hill and Pearson. Merger mania has hit the publishing world in general: Blackwell Publishing was purchased by John Wiley & Sons; Thomson Learning and Wolters Kluwer are both looking for buyers.
Related links: Media coverage: Bloomberg , Reuters, MSN Money. Commentary: Other publishing articles. Conference call transcripts: The McGraw-Hill Companies Q3 2006 .
Potentially impacted stocks McGraw-Hill Companies (MHP), Pearson PLC (PSO), The Thomson Corporation (TOC), Scholastic Corporation (SCHL), John Wiley & Sons (JWA)

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